The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices

There is growing concern that artificial intelligence conversational agents (e.g., Siri, Alexa) reinforce voice-based social stereotypes. Because little is known about social perceptions of conversational agents’ voices, we investigated (1) the dimensions that underpin perceptions of these synthetic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M., Lee, Anthony J., Altenburg, Daria, Feinberg, David R., Jones, Benedict C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9797498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36577918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27124-8
_version_ 1784860693293432832
author Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M.
Lee, Anthony J.
Altenburg, Daria
Feinberg, David R.
Jones, Benedict C.
author_facet Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M.
Lee, Anthony J.
Altenburg, Daria
Feinberg, David R.
Jones, Benedict C.
author_sort Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M.
collection PubMed
description There is growing concern that artificial intelligence conversational agents (e.g., Siri, Alexa) reinforce voice-based social stereotypes. Because little is known about social perceptions of conversational agents’ voices, we investigated (1) the dimensions that underpin perceptions of these synthetic voices and (2) the role that acoustic parameters play in these perceptions. Study 1 (N = 504) found that perceptions of synthetic voices are underpinned by Valence and Dominance components similar to those previously reported for natural human stimuli and that the Dominance component was strongly and negatively related to voice pitch. Study 2 (N = 160) found that experimentally manipulating pitch in synthetic voices directly influenced dominance-related, but not valence-related, perceptions. Collectively, these results suggest that greater consideration of the role that voice pitch plays in dominance-related perceptions when designing conversational agents may be an effective method for controlling stereotypic perceptions of their voices and the downstream consequences of those perceptions.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9797498
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97974982022-12-30 The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M. Lee, Anthony J. Altenburg, Daria Feinberg, David R. Jones, Benedict C. Sci Rep Article There is growing concern that artificial intelligence conversational agents (e.g., Siri, Alexa) reinforce voice-based social stereotypes. Because little is known about social perceptions of conversational agents’ voices, we investigated (1) the dimensions that underpin perceptions of these synthetic voices and (2) the role that acoustic parameters play in these perceptions. Study 1 (N = 504) found that perceptions of synthetic voices are underpinned by Valence and Dominance components similar to those previously reported for natural human stimuli and that the Dominance component was strongly and negatively related to voice pitch. Study 2 (N = 160) found that experimentally manipulating pitch in synthetic voices directly influenced dominance-related, but not valence-related, perceptions. Collectively, these results suggest that greater consideration of the role that voice pitch plays in dominance-related perceptions when designing conversational agents may be an effective method for controlling stereotypic perceptions of their voices and the downstream consequences of those perceptions. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9797498/ /pubmed/36577918 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27124-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Shiramizu, Victor Kenji M.
Lee, Anthony J.
Altenburg, Daria
Feinberg, David R.
Jones, Benedict C.
The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title_full The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title_fullStr The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title_full_unstemmed The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title_short The role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents’ voices
title_sort role of valence, dominance, and pitch in perceptions of artificial intelligence (ai) conversational agents’ voices
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9797498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36577918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27124-8
work_keys_str_mv AT shiramizuvictorkenjim theroleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT leeanthonyj theroleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT altenburgdaria theroleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT feinbergdavidr theroleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT jonesbenedictc theroleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT shiramizuvictorkenjim roleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT leeanthonyj roleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT altenburgdaria roleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT feinbergdavidr roleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices
AT jonesbenedictc roleofvalencedominanceandpitchinperceptionsofartificialintelligenceaiconversationalagentsvoices