Abstract:
Byron Reeves' and Cliff Nass' seminal theory - the "Media Equation" (also referred to as CASA or "Computers Are Social Actors") — captures a profound automaticity at which people treat machines, particularly agentic ones, as social others. One of the most prevalent interpretations drawn from CASA is that anthropomorphizing a machine or artificial agent facilitates people's perception of its agency, which, in turn, facilitates certain desirable interaction outcomes (e.g., cooperativity). Less discussed is the fact that people do not respond to agentic technologies in precisely the same fashion as they do to other people, or that, as agentic technologies have increased in anthropomorphism (in their appearance and/or behavior), new responses have emerged which differ from both human social behavior and traditional human-machine interactions.
In this talk, I will discuss several studies of such systems (namely, humanoids) which suggest there to be unique area in the design space of social technologies, wherein neither models of human-computer nor human-human interaction suffice to predict people's behavior. From the uncanny valley to the objectification of gendered and racialized robots, I will discuss the immediate implications of hyper-anthropomorphization in design, as well as challenges and opportunities in advancing the efficacy of socially oriented systems in navigating human social dynamics.
Bio:
Megan Strait is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her research concerns the less positivistic side of human-agent and human-robot interactions dynamics - from aversion to aggression to animosity - toward improving the efficacy of socially oriented systems such as assistive robots, conversational agents, and other agentic technologies. Drawing upon an interdisciplinary background spanning cognitive science and psychology (Ph.D., Tufts University), as well as computer science (B.A. and M.Sc. degrees; from Wellesley College and Tufts, respectively), her work bears out both aesthetic and architectural guidelines for the design of future systems.