電腦介面角色與使用者互動之情緒感染與性別差異

Emotional Contagion and Gender Differences in Human-Computer Interface Character Interaction

何秋慧(Chiu-hui Ho)

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(2007年)

摘要

情緒感染（emotional contagion）是指當人們與他人相處時，會有自動模仿或與他人的臉部表情、聲音、肢體動作等同步化的傾向，當接觸到表達出某些特定情緒的人之後，人們也會有相似的情緒狀態，這種現象即稱之為情緒感染。而根據Hatfield（ 1994）指出，情緒感染可能存有性別差異，亦即女性會更容易受到情緒感染，感染的程度也會比男性強；而Nass的電腦為社會行動者（computers are social actors, CASA）典範則指出人們對待電腦如同對待真人一樣，在人際間會產生的效應同樣地也會發生於人機互動間。過往人機互動領域中情緒相關研究多在探討電腦系統是否具有情緒對於使用者的影響，但很少有研究在探究電腦系統的正、負面情緒對使用者的影響（Creed, 2005），也未見探討人機互動時，使用者是否會受到電腦的情緒所影響而產生情緒感染效應之相關研究。本研究目的即在探究人機互動時，介面角色所表現出來的情緒是否會對使用者造成情緒感染，且是否會有性別差異。
本研究以介面角色的情緒（正、負面情緒）以及受測者性別（男性、女性）為研究自變項，因變項則為受測者的情緒狀態、受測者對介面角色的感受、圖片活動的績效與錄影分析。研究結果顯示，在人機互動時，介面角色所展現的情緒的確會對使用者造成感染的現象，即在與介面角色互動後，受測者的情緒狀態會有所改變：正面情緒組的受測者的情緒會更正面，負面情緒組的受測者的情緒會更負面。此外，正、負面情緒組的受測者對於介面角色的感受也會有所不同：正面情緒組的受測者對於介面角色的喜好度、互動愉悅度與互動過程滿意度、願意再互動的意願皆比負面情緒組高，這可以Bower（1982）的心情一致處理（mood-congruent processing）以及Forgas（1995）的情緒模型（affect infusion model）來解釋：因為正面情緒的人對一切的評價會顯得更正面，負面情緒的人則會顯得更負面。但正、負面情緒對於受測者對介面角色的信任度、決定以及建議的品質這三項則無顯著差異，影響這三個因變項的反而是使用者與介面角色決定或理由的相似度。而本研究在情緒感染與性別差異中，雖然MBS與DES量表的交互作用皆未達顯著，但在SAM量表中則達到顯著差異，在正面情緒時，女性的情緒狀態比男性更正面，但男女性差異較小；在負面情緒時，女性的情緒狀態比男性更負面，而男女性差異較大。對於介面角色的感受部份，正負面情緒對於受測者對介面角色的決定、信任度、建議的品質仍無顯著差異，而男女性對於介面角色的互動過程滿意度未達顯著差異，但對喜好度、互動愉悅度以及願意再互動的意願則的交互作用則達到顯著，在正面情緒組中，女性的喜好度、互動愉悅度以及願意再互動的意願比男性來得高；但在負面情緒組中，女性的喜好度、互動愉悅度以及願意再互動的意願都比男性來得低。研究者將根據結果提出一些後續研究方向與設計建議，以供未來研究者參考。

關鍵字

情緒感染 ； 性別差異 ； 介面角色 ； 電腦為社會行動者 ； 人機互動

並列摘要

Emotional contagion is defined as” the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally.” When exposed to people of specific emotions, people will experience the same ones. Hatfield(1994) indicated that gender differences might exist in emotional contagion, that is, females will be more susceptible to emotional contagion. On the other hand, computers are social actors paradigm（Nass,1995）proposed that people will treat computers as real people, and the effects discovered in interpersonal relationships can also be applied in human-computer interaction (HCI). Most of emotion-related researches in HCI focus on different effects of computers’ displayed emotions on users; however, there is little research on the effects of positive or negative emotions displayed by computers on users, and no research on emotional contagion in HCI so far. This study aims to investigate if users will be susceptible to interface characters’ emotions and to exam the effects of gender differences.
The independent variables of this study were interface character’s emotions (positive and negative) and subject’s sex (male and female), and the dependent variables were subjects’ emotional states, their assessments of the interface character, the performance of pictures assessments and recall and analysis of facial expression recordings. The results demonstrated that users would be susceptible to interface character’s emotions during interaction; after interacting with the interface character, subjects in positive emotion groups became more positive and subjects in negative ones more negative. Otherwise, subjects in positive/negative emotion groups would have different assessments of the perception, subject’s assessment of likeability, pleasure of interaction, satisfaction, willing to interact in positive groups would be more positive than in negative ones. This could be explained by mood-congruent processing (Bower, 1982) and affect infusion model (Forgas, 1995).
However the interface character’s emotional states had no significant effects on subjects’ trust toward the interface character, interface character’s decisions and the quality of arguments, it’s the similarity between users and the interface character that had impacts on those three variables. When it comes to emotional contagion and gender differences, although the interaction effects were not significant in MBS and DES, it’s significant in SAM. In positive emotion groups, females’ emotional states were more positive than males, but the difference was smaller; in negative ones, females’ emotional states were more negative than males and the difference huger. When it comes to the perception, the interface character’s emotional states had no siginificant effects n subjects’ trust toward the interface character, interface character’s decisions and the quality of arguments either, but the interaction effects were significant on likability, pleasure of interaction and the willing to interact. In positive groups, the likability, pleasure of interaction and the willing to interact of females were more positive than males; in negative ones, those thress variables of females more neagative than males. According to the results of this study, we provided some directions and design suggestions for future researchers.

並列關鍵字

emotional contagion ； gender differences ； interface character ； computers are social actors ； human-computer interaction