The Effect of Conversational Agent Skill on User Behavior during Deception

Keywords

Conversational agents, Relevance, Deception, Conversational skill, Chatbots

Abstract

Conversational agents (CAs) are an integral component of many personal and business interactions. Many recent advancements in CA technology have attempted to make these interactions more natural and human-like. However, it is currently unclear how human-like traits in a CA impact the way users respond to questions from the CA. In some applications where CAs may be used, detecting deception is important. Design elements that make CA interactions more human-like may induce undesired strategic behaviors from human deceivers to mask their deception. To better understand this interaction, this research investigates the effect of conversational skill—that is, the ability of the CA to mimic human conversation—from CAs on behavioral indicators of deception. Our results show that cues of deception vary depending on CA conversational skill, and that increased conversational skill leads to users engaging in strategic behaviors that are detrimental to deception detection. This finding suggests that for applications in which it is desirable to detect when individuals are lying, the pursuit of more human-like interactions may be counter-productive.

Original Publication Citation

"Schuetzler, R. M., Grimes, G. M., & Giboney, J. S. (2019). The Effect of Conversational Agent Skill on User Behavior during Deception. Computers in Human Behavior, 97, pp. 250–259."

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2019

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/8413

Publisher

Computers in Human Behavior

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Information Systems

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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