This research investigates the meaning of ‘human-computer relationship ’ and presents techniques for constructing, maintaining, and evaluating such relationships, based on research in social psychology, sociolinguistics, communication and other social sciences. Contexts in which relationships are particularly important are described, together with specific benefits (like trust) and task outcomes (like improved learning) known to be associated with relationship quality. We especially consider the problem of designing for longterm interaction, and define relational agents as computational artifacts designed to establish and maintain long-term social-emotional relationships with their users. We construct the first such agent, and evaluate it in a controlled experiment with 101 users who were asked to interact daily with an exercise adoption system for a month. Compared to an equivalent task-oriented agent without any deliberate social-emotional or relationshipbuilding skills, the relational agent was respected more, liked more, and trusted more, even after four weeks of interaction. Additionally, users expressed a significantly greater desire to continue working with the relational agent after the termination of the study. We conclude by discussing future directions for this research together with ethical and other ramifications of this work for HCI designers.

What kinds of social relationships can people have with computers? Are there activities that computers can engage in that actively draw people into relationships with them? What are the potential benefits to the people who participate in these human-computer relationships? To address these questions this work introduces a theory of Relational Agents, which are computational artifacts designed to build and maintain long-term, social-emotional relationships with their users. These can be purely software humanoid animated agents--as developed in this work--but they can also be non-humanoid or embodied in various physical forms, from robots, to pets, to jewelry, clothing, hand-helds, and other interactive devices. Central to the notion of relationship is that it is a persistent construct, spanning multiple interactions; thus, Relational Agents are explicitly designed to remember past history and manage future expectations in their interactions with users. Finally, relationships are fundamentally social and emotional, and detailed knowledge of human social psychology--with a particular emphasis on the role of affect--must be incorporated into these agents if they are to effectively leverage the mechanisms of human social cognition in order to build relationships in the most natural manner possible. People build

Human-human dialogue does not just comprise statements about the task at hand, about the joint and separate goals of the interlocutors, and about their plans. In human-human conversation participants often engage in talk that, on the surface, does not seem to move the dialogue forward at all. However, this talk -- about the weather, current events, and many other topics without significant overt relationship to the task at hand -- may, in fact, be essential to how humans obtain information about one another's goals and plans and decide whether collaborative work is worth engaging in at all. For example, realtors use small talk to gather information to form stereotypes (a collection of frequently co-occurring characteristics) of their clients -- people who drive minivans are more likely to have children, and therefore to be searching for larger homes in neighbourhoods with good schools. Realtors---and salespeople in general---also use small talk to increase intimacy with

ABSTRACT: We propose a model of motivated skepticism that helps explain when, how, why and under what conditions citizens are prone to be biased political information processors. We report the results of two experimental studies that explore how citizens evaluate arguments about two political issues – affirmative action and gun control – to test hypotheses predicting motivated reasoning. As predicted, in situations where participants (Ps) are presented with a balanced set of pro and con arguments, we find strong evidence of a prior attitude effect such attitudinally congruent arguments are evaluated as stronger than attitudinally incongruent arguments. When reading the pro and con arguments, Ps counter argue the contrary arguments and uncritically bolster supporting arguments, evidence of a disconfirmation bias. We also find a confirmation bias – the seeking out of confirmatory evidence – when Ps are free to self-select the source of the arguments they read. Both the confirmation and disconfirmation biases lead to attitude polarization – the strengthening of their t2 over t1 attitude – especially among those with the strongest priors and highest level of political sophistication. We conclude with a discussion of the normative implications of these findings for rational behavior in a democracy. 1 So convenient a thing is it to be a rational creature, since it enables us to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to.

The authors are also grateful for the helpful feedback from the Editor, Wagner Kamakura, and three anonymous reviewers. What to Say When: Advertising Appeals in Evolving Markets The authors study how ad cues impact actual consumer behavior in new vs. well-established markets. They use theoretical insights from consumer information processing to argue that the same ad cues can have different effects on consumer behavior, depending on whether the market is new or old. They then test these hypotheses in the context of a toll-free referral service, using a highly disaggregate econometric model of advertising response. Results indicate that argument-based appeals, expert sources, and negatively framed messages are particularly effective in new markets. Emotion-based appeals and Does advertising affect behavior? If so, which particular creative appeal or ad cue works best? Researchers have tried to answer these questions for several decades. Research to date can be broadly classified into two streams: laboratory studies of the effects of ad cues on cognitions, affect, or intentions and econometric studies of the effects of advertising intensity on purchase behavior. Table 1 lists a

The perceptions of the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) road safety public education program held by 90 drivers were investigated. Participants provided ratings of the general approach used by the TAC, their recollection of how they had responded to selected TAC advertisements in the past, and their responses to TAC advertisements viewed during the assessment session. The results indicated that the participants were generally positive towards the TAC program, that their perceptions or attitudes were largely driven by the style of advertising (emotive vs. enforcement), and that advertisements judged to be effective tended to be rated as strongly emotive and highly informative or original. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for future development of new advertisements and for future research in this area. Key Words: Public education, driver behaviour, highway safety Reproduction of this page is authorised

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Abstract. Persuasive dialogue systems that aim to change people’s attitudes and behaviours have drawn much attention in recent years due to their great practical potential. Current systems rely heavily on argumentation and advicegiving to form their persuasive messages. Many findings in psychology, and some counselling intervention methods such as Motivational Interviewing (MI) dispute this confrontational approach. Our project sets out to investigate whether MI can provide an alternative way to develop a more effective system. In this paper, we discuss the limitations of the argumentation-based approach, review a number of argumentation-based systems, and present the results of an evaluation study which compares people’s perception of the persuasibility of two argumentation-based dialogues and a MI-based counterpart. Our results show a higher perceived persuasiveness for the MI-based dialogue.

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The challenges of dealing with newcomers In the face of inevitable turnover, every online community must incorporate successive generations of newcomers to survive. Without replacing members who leave, a community will eventually wither away. Newcomers can also be a source of innovation, new ideas and work procedures or other resources that the group needs. However, attracting newcomers and incorporating them into an existing community can be a difficult endeavor. Newcomers have not yet developed the commitment to the group felt by old-timers. As a result, they are very sensitive to the public image a community has and to their own early experiences in it. They may not join or are likely to leave in the face of even minor adversity. They have less motivation to be helpful to the group or to display good organizational citizenship characteristic of many old-timers (Organ & Ryan, 1995). In addition, for reasons of either ignorance or maliciousness, they may behave in ways that can be harmful to the group. They do not yet know the norms guiding behavior in the group and in their ignorance, may act in ways that offend other group members or otherwise undercut the smooth functioning of the group. For example, when