電腦介面角色之外表美醜、個性內外向對不同性別使用者在角色吸引、社交表徵及滿意度上之影響

The Effects of the Physical Attractiveness and Personality of Computer Interface Characters on the Engagement, Social Presence and Satisfaction of Users of Both Genders

方永安(Yung-An Fang)

指導教授 ： 許有真

國立清華大學/電機資訊學院/資訊系統與應用研究所/碩士(2008年)

摘要

介面角色(interface character)可能是電腦程式本身，或者屬於介面的一個部份。它可能擁有透過面部表情、身體語言、手勢或口語跟使用者進行溝通的能力。由於介面角色可以採用一般人際互動最自然的溝通方式來與使用者互動，因此它將會是未來扮演介面與使用者間重要的溝通角色。然而根據電腦即社會行為者典範(Computer As a Social Actor, CASA)及媒體等式(media equation)，使用者會採用人際間的一般社交規則應用在電腦人機互動中，這即代表使用者與介面角色互動不但可能會帶來正面的效應外，也可能產生負面的效應。因此參考人際互動中的相關社會心理學研究，來討論是否會應用在電腦介面角色將會很重要。本研究即針對幾個主題如「美就是好」、「月暈效應」、「個性相似吸引」及「個性互補吸引」及「性別」等，來探究介面角色之外表美醜、與使用者個性之搭配(個性相似或個性互補)及使用者之性別等因素對使用者在角色吸引、社交表徵及滿意度上之影響。

本研究採用2 x 2 x 2的實驗設計，自變項為角色外表美感(美、醜)、角色與使用者之個性搭配(相似、互補)及使用者性別(男、女)。應變項為角色吸引(親近感、距離感)、社交表徵感知及角色滿意度。本研究的任務為介面角色對受測者進行西洋繪畫的導覽活動，受測者所面對的介面角色為一女性形象的漫畫式人物，其個性及外表皆經過設計以符合本研究之自變項。研究結果顯示雖然美角色在互動前後較能夠增加角色親近感、社交表徵，並減少距離感。但醜角色也會增加親近感及減少距離感，這表示與使用者的互動內容將會改善原本外表所帶來的負面效應。另外，由於內向或外向個性皆設計為協助使用者進行任務，會發現無論使用者本身個性為何，皆會喜歡這樣的內向或外向個性設計。而另外女性受測者會展現對女性醜角色的同理心，在美感分數上會顯著高於男性受測者。最後，社交表徵在角色互動中扮演著相當重要的因素，高程度的社交表徵將會帶來較好的滿意度。本研究結果建議未來設計電腦介面角色時，應注意其互動內容之設計，因使用者在與角色互動後，會改變其原本外表所帶來的第一印象。另一方面，透過角色的擬人程度、語言線索及肢體語言等，提高角色的社交表徵程度將會讓介面角色更讓使用者滿意。最後應注意介面角色及使用者間也會因性別而產生不同效應，並且性別之效應可做為未來研究之參考。

關鍵字

電腦介面角色 ； 「漂亮即代表美好」現象 ； 個性相似吸引效應 ； 個性互補吸引 ； 媒體等式 ； 社交表徵

並列摘要

An interface character might be the computer program itself or may be part of an interface; it might be equipped with the ability to communicate with users via facial expression, body language, gestures or verbal communication. Since interface characters can communicate with users in the most natural way as interpersonal communication, they therefore play an important role in communicating between interfaces and users. According to the paradigm of “Computer as a social actor”, users interact with each other based on social rules, meaning that as well as having a positive impact, interface characters can also have a negative impact on the users. Therefore, we can refer to related social-psychology research on interpersonal interaction to explore if the rules can also be applied to computer interface characters. This research explores many social science subjects such as “Beauty is good,” “Halo effects,” “similarity-attraction,” “complementarity-attraction,” and “gender differences” to exam the effects of the physical attractiveness and personality of computer interface characters on the engagement, social presence and satisfaction of users of both genders.

This study uses a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design, with the independent variables being physical attractiveness (beauty and ugly), personality similarity or complementarity and the genders of participants (males and females). The dependent variables are engagement (involvement and distance), social presence and satisfaction with the interface characters. In the task undertaken for this study, participants are guided by a female cartoon character to do a tour of western paintings; the personalities and the appearance of the interface characters are designed for the independent variables. The results demonstrate that although beautiful interface characters can increase the user’s sense of involvement and social presence, and can decrease the sense of distance, ugly interface characters can also increase the sense of involvement, and decrease the sense of distance. This means that the content of the interaction between users and interface characters decreases the negative effects of appearance on the participants. Furthermore, because all kinds of interface characters are designed to assist in users’ tasks, no matter what kind of personality the participants are, they like the extroverted or introverted interface characters. Besides, female participants show their empathy to the ugly female interface characters, giving higher aesthetics ratings than males. Social presence also plays an important role in the interaction between interface characters and participants: higher social presence brings higher satisfaction. The results of this study suggest that designers should pay more attention to the contents of the interaction because users will change their first impressions caused by the physical attractiveness of interface characters after they interact with them. On the other hand, increasing the social presence of interface characters via the degrees of anthropopathy, language cues and body language will increase users’ satisfaction. However, designers should also pay attention to the different effects between interface characters and users caused by different genders.

並列關鍵字

Computer Interface Character ； Beauty Is Good ； Similarity-attraction ； Complementarity-attraction ； Media Equation ； Social Presence

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