Agents with faces: the effect of personification

It is still an open question whether software agents should be personified in the interface. In order to study the effects of faces and facial expressions in the interface a series of experiments was conducted to compare subjects´ responses to and evaluation of different faces and facial expressions. The experimental results obtained demonstrate that: (1) personified interfaces help users engage in a task, and are well suited for an entertainment domain; (2) people´s impressions of a face in a task are different from ones of the face in isolation. Perceived intelligence of a face is determined not by the agent´s appearance but by its competence; (3) there is a dichotomy between user groups which have opposite opinions about personification. Thus, agent-based interfaces should be flexible to support the diversity of users´ preferences and the nature of tasks