Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations

Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García; Mohan Zalake; Alexandre Gomes De Siqueira; Benjamin Lok; Felix Hamza-Lup

doi:10.1145/3472306.3478367

Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations

Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García
, Mohan Zalake
, Alexandre Gomes De Siqueira
, Benjamin Lok
, Felix Hamza-Lup

Computer Science

University of Florida

Research output: Contribution to book or proceeding › Conference article › peer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the context of mental wellness support, trust and intimacy between a counselor and a patient are necessary to converge healing processes positively. However, convincing students to trust a virtual human for topics regarding mental wellness is a complex problem that requires understanding students' experiences. Based on research that discusses mental health as a concerning topic regarding Computer Science (CS) students, this paper investigates how undergraduate computing-related students perceive virtual humans' expertise on mental wellness support based on demographic resemblance on spoken accent and gender. Four virtual human counselors were developed to conduct the study, as 58 undergraduate computing-related students from two North American universities were recruited and assessed. Our findings suggest that students were less inclined to interact with a male virtual human than a female one. Also, that spoken accents can impact students' perceptions of expertise under students' multilingualism.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	68-75
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450386197
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367 https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367
State	Published - Sep 14 2021
Event	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021 - Virtual, Online, Japan Duration: Sep 14 2021 → Sep 17 2021

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021

Conference

Conference	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Virtual, Online
Period	09/14/21 → 09/17/21

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Scopus Subject Areas

Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction

Disciplines

Computer Sciences
Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces

Keywords

Virtual reality
conversational agent
culturally relevant computing
virtual humans

Access to Document

10.1145/3472306.3478367
10.1145/3472306.3478367License: Unspecified

Cite this

Feijóo-García, P. G., Zalake, M., De Siqueira, A. G., Lok, B., & Hamza-Lup, F. (2021). Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021 (pp. 68-75). (Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367, https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367

Feijóo-García, Pedro Guillermo ; Zalake, Mohan ; De Siqueira, Alexandre Gomes et al. / Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations. Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2021. pp. 68-75 (Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021).

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title = "Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations",

abstract = "In the context of mental wellness support, trust and intimacy between a counselor and a patient are necessary to converge healing processes positively. However, convincing students to trust a virtual human for topics regarding mental wellness is a complex problem that requires understanding students' experiences. Based on research that discusses mental health as a concerning topic regarding Computer Science (CS) students, this paper investigates how undergraduate computing-related students perceive virtual humans' expertise on mental wellness support based on demographic resemblance on spoken accent and gender. Four virtual human counselors were developed to conduct the study, as 58 undergraduate computing-related students from two North American universities were recruited and assessed. Our findings suggest that students were less inclined to interact with a male virtual human than a female one. Also, that spoken accents can impact students' perceptions of expertise under students' multilingualism.",

keywords = "Virtual reality, conversational agent, culturally relevant computing, virtual humans",

author = "Feij{\'o}o-Garc{\'i}a, \{Pedro Guillermo\} and Mohan Zalake and \{De Siqueira\}, \{Alexandre Gomes\} and Benjamin Lok and Felix Hamza-Lup",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 ACM.; 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021 ; Conference date: 14-09-2021 Through 17-09-2021",

year = "2021",

month = sep,

day = "14",

doi = "10.1145/3472306.3478367",

language = "English",

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}

Feijóo-García, PG, Zalake, M, De Siqueira, AG, Lok, B & Hamza-Lup, F 2021, Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations. in Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021. Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 68-75, 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021, Virtual, Online, Japan, 09/14/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367, https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478367

Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations. / Feijóo-García, Pedro Guillermo; Zalake, Mohan; De Siqueira, Alexandre Gomes et al.
Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2021. p. 68-75 (Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021).

Research output: Contribution to book or proceeding › Conference article › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations

AU - Feijóo-García, Pedro Guillermo

AU - Zalake, Mohan

AU - De Siqueira, Alexandre Gomes

AU - Lok, Benjamin

AU - Hamza-Lup, Felix

PY - 2021/9/14

Y1 - 2021/9/14

N2 - In the context of mental wellness support, trust and intimacy between a counselor and a patient are necessary to converge healing processes positively. However, convincing students to trust a virtual human for topics regarding mental wellness is a complex problem that requires understanding students' experiences. Based on research that discusses mental health as a concerning topic regarding Computer Science (CS) students, this paper investigates how undergraduate computing-related students perceive virtual humans' expertise on mental wellness support based on demographic resemblance on spoken accent and gender. Four virtual human counselors were developed to conduct the study, as 58 undergraduate computing-related students from two North American universities were recruited and assessed. Our findings suggest that students were less inclined to interact with a male virtual human than a female one. Also, that spoken accents can impact students' perceptions of expertise under students' multilingualism.

AB - In the context of mental wellness support, trust and intimacy between a counselor and a patient are necessary to converge healing processes positively. However, convincing students to trust a virtual human for topics regarding mental wellness is a complex problem that requires understanding students' experiences. Based on research that discusses mental health as a concerning topic regarding Computer Science (CS) students, this paper investigates how undergraduate computing-related students perceive virtual humans' expertise on mental wellness support based on demographic resemblance on spoken accent and gender. Four virtual human counselors were developed to conduct the study, as 58 undergraduate computing-related students from two North American universities were recruited and assessed. Our findings suggest that students were less inclined to interact with a male virtual human than a female one. Also, that spoken accents can impact students' perceptions of expertise under students' multilingualism.

KW - Virtual reality

KW - conversational agent

KW - culturally relevant computing

KW - virtual humans

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85115776617

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DO - 10.1145/3472306.3478367

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:85115776617

T3 - Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021

SP - 68

EP - 75

BT - Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021

PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

T2 - 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021

Y2 - 14 September 2021 through 17 September 2021

ER -

Feijóo-García PG, Zalake M, De Siqueira AG, Lok B, Hamza-Lup F. Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2021. p. 68-75. (Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021). doi: 10.1145/3472306.3478367, 10.1145/3472306.3478367

Effects of Virtual Humans' Gender and Spoken Accent on Users' Perceptions of Expertise in Mental Wellness Conversations

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

Scopus Subject Areas

Disciplines

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this