abstract

"Alexa is my new BFF": Social Roles, User Satisfaction, and Personification of the Amazon Echo

Authors:

Amanda Purington,

Jessie G. Taft,

Natalya N. Bazarova,

Samuel Hardman TaylorAuthors Info & Claims

CHI EA '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2853 - 2859

https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3053246

Published: 06 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Amazon's Echo and its conversational agent Alexa open exciting opportunities for understanding how people perceive and interact with virtual agents. Drawing from user reviews of the Echo posted to Amazon.com, this case study explores the degree to which user reviews indicate personification of the device, sociability level of interactions, factors linked with personification, and influences on user satisfaction. Results indicate marked variance in how people refer to the device, with over half using the personified name Alexa but most referencing the device with object pronouns. Degree of device personification is linked with sociability of interactions: greater personification co-occurs with more social interactions with the Echo. Reviewers mentioning multiple member households are more likely to personify the device than reviewers mentioning living alone. Even after controlling for technical issues, personification predicts user satisfaction with the Echo.

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Cited By

Greiner DLemoine J(2025)Bridging the gap: user expectations for conversational AI services with consideration of user expertiseJournal of Services Marketing10.1108/JSM-02-2024-005639:2(76-94)Online publication date: 13-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2024-0056
Handrich MOtterbach M(2024)Digital Employee Training With Digital Adoption Platforms Boost Learning and Knowledge Management of Corporate IT SystemsInternational Journal of Knowledge Management10.4018/IJKM.35800520:1(1-19)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/IJKM.358005
Baid SBasibuyuk PAryono S(2024)Collaborative Caregiving in Multi-Generational FamiliesPerspectives on Social and Material Fractures in Care10.4018/979-8-3693-0015-2.ch006(154-183)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-0015-2.ch006
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Index Terms

"Alexa is my new BFF": Social Roles, User Satisfaction, and Personification of the Amazon Echo
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI EA '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2017

3954 pages

ISBN:9781450346566

DOI:10.1145/3027063

General Chairs:
Gloria Mark
University of California Irvine
,
Susan Fussell
Cornell University
,
Program Chairs:
Cliff Lampe
University of Michigan
,
m.c. schraefel
University of Southampton
,
Juan Pablo Hourcade
University of Iowa
,
Caroline Appert
Université Paris-Sud
,
Daniel Wigdor
University of Toronto

Copyright © 2017 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 06 May 2017

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USDA NIFA HATCH grant
NSF:CHS: Medium grant

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CHI '17

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SIGCHI

CHI '17: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 6 - 11, 2017

Colorado, Denver, USA

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CHI EA '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 1,000 of 5,000 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

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CHI 2025

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sigchi

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

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Cited By

Greiner DLemoine J(2025)Bridging the gap: user expectations for conversational AI services with consideration of user expertiseJournal of Services Marketing10.1108/JSM-02-2024-005639:2(76-94)Online publication date: 13-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2024-0056
Handrich MOtterbach M(2024)Digital Employee Training With Digital Adoption Platforms Boost Learning and Knowledge Management of Corporate IT SystemsInternational Journal of Knowledge Management10.4018/IJKM.35800520:1(1-19)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/IJKM.358005
Baid SBasibuyuk PAryono S(2024)Collaborative Caregiving in Multi-Generational FamiliesPerspectives on Social and Material Fractures in Care10.4018/979-8-3693-0015-2.ch006(154-183)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-0015-2.ch006
Fester-Seeger M(2024)How a Child Learns to ‘Talk’ to a Smart Speaker: On the Emergence of Enlanguaged PracticesLinguistic Frontiers10.2478/lf-2024-00107:1(1-22)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2478/lf-2024-0010
Jaber KLafi MAlkhatib AAbedAlghafer AAbdul Jawad MAhmad A(2024)Comparative Study for Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA) and State-of-the-Art Speech Recognition TechnologyInternational Journal of Computational and Experimental Science and Engineering10.22399/ijcesen.38310:3Online publication date: 2-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.22399/ijcesen.383
Shim HCho JSung Y(2024)Unveiling Secrets to AI Agents: Exploring the Interplay of Conversation Type, Self-Disclosure, and Privacy InsensitivityAsian Communication Research10.20879/acr.2024.21.01921:2(11-11)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.20879/acr.2024.21.019
Yuan YWu CNiu JMao L(2024)The Effects of Human-Robot Interactions and the Human-Robot Relationship on Robot Competence, Trust, and AcceptanceSage Open10.1177/2158244024124823014:2Online publication date: 17-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241248230
Maharjan RMendu SMariani MAbdullah SHansen J(2024)Exploring user engagement with real-time verbal feedback from an exoskeleton-based virtual exercise coachDIGITAL HEALTH10.1177/2055207624130265210Online publication date: 5-Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241302652
Namvarpour MRazi AFarzan RLópez CCardoso Llach DQuercia DMustafa MNiu SWong-Villacrés M(2024)Uncovering Contradictions in Human-AI Interactions: Lessons Learned from User Reviews of ReplikaCompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3681909(579-586)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
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Schulz AYoussef YBeruscha FHornecker E(2024)User Perceptions and Experiences with Smart Homes - The Smart Home as an Obedient Guard Dog, Disinterested Cat, Ambitious Octopus or Busy BeehiveProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202410.1145/3670653.3670659(171-183)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3670653.3670659
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