Cees Midden

Eindhoven University of Technology | TUE · Research Group Human-Technology Interaction

Background Though pedagogical artificial agents are expected to play a crucial role in the years to come, earlier studies provide inconsistent results regarding their effect on learning. This might be because their potential for exhibiting subtle nonverbal behaviours we know from human teachers has been untapped. What is more, there is little evide...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Persuasive Technology, PERSUASIVE 2020, held in Aalborg, Denmark, in April 2020. The 18 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 79 submissions. The papers are grouped in the following topical sections: methodological and theor...

Anthropomorphism is generally defined as the attribution of human-like characteristics to social robots and other non-human objects. We argue that different researchers have different interpretations of this concept, leading to measuring instruments that focus on different subsets of human-like characteristics. In the current paper, we discuss thes...

Various nonverbal behaviors – often referred to as nonverbal immediacy - of both human and virtual teachers have been shown to play a crucial role in student learning. However, past literature provides limited evidence of the effect of a virtual agent’s vocalization, as a nonverbal immediacy cue, on learning outcomes. Even less is known about the e...

Earlier research provides inconsistent evidence for effects of pedagogical agents on learning outcomes. We claim that the agent's instructional method helps to explain the inconsistency, with agents that offer behavioral modeling as an instructional method leading to better learning. We conducted two studies to investigate effects of the use of an...

This chapter discusses the dimensions and scope of persuasive technology and its potential to promote sustainable use of the environment surrounding us. Persuasive technology aims to bridge the gap between technological and psychological contributions to solving environmental problems by intervening in user‐system interactions that have environment...

Despite technological advancements in assistive technologies, studies show high rates of non-use. Because of the rising numbers of people with disabilities, it is important to develop strategies to increase assistive technology acceptance. The current research investigated the use of an artificial agent (embedded into a system) as a persuasive beha...

Cognitive factors, like beliefs, have been studied extensively as determinants of medication adherence, while affect associated with taking medicines has been studied much less. In the present study (N = 525), we investigated affect by assessing patients' first associations with taking their medicines. Results showed that these associations were re...

Medication non-adherence has been recognised as one of the major problems in health care that leads to preventable costs and hospitalisations. This study aimed to assess the role of affect in medication adherence. We propose a dual-process framework of medication adherence based on the reflective–impulsive model, which includes both cognitive and a...

A vast majority of people with motor disabilities cannot be part of the today's digital society, due to the difficulties they face in using conventional interfaces (i.e., mouse and keyboard) for computer operation. The MAMEM project aims at facilitating the social inclusion of these people by developing a technology that allows computer operation,...

Colors of lighting feedback can have message-related associations helping users easily processing feedback messages. Study 1 showed more ease of processing only for participants receiving strongly-associated lighting feedback, as their processing times (of these feedback messages) were not increased by additional cognitive load. Also, lighting feed...

This paper explores the relation between consistency of social cues and persuasion by an artificial agent. Including (minimal) social cues in Persuasive Technology (PT) increases the probability that people attribute human-like characteristics to that technology, which in turn can make that technology more persuasive (see e.g., Nass, Steuer, Tauber...

Colors are widely used as feedback in ambient persuasive technology. In current research, we argue that the information that color-based feedback carries is highly context dependent. Two studies investigated effects of context (in which color-based feedback was presented) on user’s interpretation of feedback messages, and more importantly, on the e...

The present research addresses the question of how trust in systems is formed when unequivocal information about system accuracy and reliability is absent, and focuses on the interaction of indirect information (others' evaluations) and direct (experiential) information stemming from the interaction process. Trust in decision-supporting technology,...

Earlier research showed that artificial social agents can influence human behavior. This article argues that, especially under certain circumstances, people are sensitive to persuasion by (artificial) social agents. For example, when people feel socially excluded, they are motivated to increase their social connections with others. It was hypothesi...

Thanks to the ubiquity of wireless network, location has become an easily available resource to exploit when sending purchase recommendations. We rely on Fogg’s Behavior model (FBM; Fogg, 2009) and on previous research to study whether the appearance of such recommendations when the user spatially approaches a target item improves the recommendatio...

In this paper we propose a new perspective on persuasive technology: Persuasive effects of a group of artificial agents. We argue that while effects of single social agents have been corroborated, understanding of persuasion by multiple agents in a group setting is very limited. In the current research, we argue that conformity effects could occur...

In this paper we propose a new perspective on persuasive technology: Comfort-Experience-Based Persuasive Technology. We argue that comfort experiences have a dominant influence on people’s (energy consumption) behavior. In the current research, we argue that room lighting can influence heating-related comfort experiences (by emitting a ‘warm’ versu...

Objective: We examined whether participants would trust an agent that was similar to them more than an agent that was dissimilar to them. Background: Trust is an important psychological factor determining the acceptance of smart systems. Because smart systems tend to be treated like humans, and similarity has been shown to increase trust in humans...

Current self-report medication adherence measures often provide heavily skewed results with limited variance, suggesting that most participants are highly adherent. This contrasts with findings from objective adherence measures. We argue that one of the main limitations of these self-report measures is the limited range covered by the behaviors ass...

In citizen participation, a few representatives of the total citizen population participate in discussions with authorities regarding public decisions and policies. The present study examines a dual process model in which the representatives’ voice and similarity of values facilitate public acceptance through procedural fairness and trust in repres...

In this paper we analyze the role of negative feedback as provided by artificial agents. We examine the hypothesis that negative feedback offers substantial potential to enhance persuasive interventions aimed to change behavior. This hypothesis is tested based on a review of several studies using the same experimental paradigm that includes a virtu...

Earlier research indicated that ambient persuasive lighting can have persuasive effects on energy-efficiency behavior. However, why would this kind of ambient feedback be effective? The current research investigated the influence of the strength of associations (of colors used for giving feedback) on the effectiveness of ambient feedback. Two color...

Persuasive agents may function as a tool to induce changes in human behavior. Research has shown that human-likeness of such agents influences their effectiveness. Besides characteristics of the agent, other characteristics may also have strong influences on persuasive agents’ effectiveness. One such characteristic is social exclusion. When people...

The more avatars are being perceived as likable and trustworthy, the more successful they will be in persuading people to change their attitudes and behavior. Research has shown that both mimicry and facial similarity may increase likability and trustworthiness of avatars. In this paper, we will provide a short guide on how to implement mimicry and...

In human-robot interaction research, much attention is given to the extent to which people perceive humanlike attributes in robots. Generally, the concept anthropomorphism is used to describe this process. Anthropomorphism is defined in different ways, with much focus on either typical human attributes or uniquely human attributes. This difference...

Affective robots and embodied conversational agents require convincing facial expressions to make them socially acceptable. To be able to virtually generate facial expressions, we need to investigate the relationship between technology and human perception of affective and social signals. Facial landmarks, the locations of the crucial parts of a fa...

http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en94/special/similarity-cues-can-increase-trust-in-the-self-driving-cars-of-the-future

We explored the possibility of a general brightness bias: brighter pictures are evaluated more positively, while darker pictures are evaluated more negatively. In Study 1 we found that positive pictures are brighter than negative pictures in two affective picture databases (the IAPS and the GAPED). Study 2 revealed that because researchers select a...

Earlier research suggested that mimicry increases liking and trust in other people. Because people respond socially to technology and mimicry leads to increased liking of virtual agents, we expected that a mimicking virtual agent would be liked and trusted more than a non-mimicking one. We investigated this expectation in an automotive setting. We...

Previous research has shown a link between gazing behavior and type of emotion felt. It appears that approach-oriented emotions are better perceived in combination with a direct gaze, whereas avoidance-oriented emotions are better perceived in combination with an averted gaze. In this study, we investigate whether this effect can be applied to pers...

This research explored the persuasive effects on behavior of social feedback by a robotic agent. In two experiments, participants could save on energy while carrying out washing tasks on a simulated washing machine. In both experiments, we tested the persuasive effects of positive and negative social feedback and we compared these effects to factua...

To design robots or embodied conversational agents that can accurately display facial expressions indicating an emotional state, we need technology to produce those facial expressions, and research that investigates the relationship between those technologies and human social perception of those artificial faces. Our starting point is assessing hum...

We examine whether trust in smart systems is generated analogously to trust in humans and whether the automation level of smart systems affects trustworthiness and acceptability of those systems. Trust is an important factor when considering acceptability of automation technology. As shared goals lead to social trust, and intelligent machines tend...

Delta areas like the Netherlands are threatened by global climate change. Awareness is, however, rather low. Our research objective was to investigate whether coping responses to flooding risks could be enhanced in a virtual environment (VE). A laboratory experiment was conducted in which participants were exposed to a simulated dike breach and con...

Artificial social agents can influence people. However, artificial social agents are not real humans, and people may ascribe less agency to them. Would the persuasive power of a social robot diminish when people ascribe only little agency to it? To investigate this question, we performed an experiment in which participants performed tasks on a wash...

Achieving ambitious CO2 emission reductions require changing mundane consumer behaviors in addition to increasing modern technology’s energy-saving potential. Frequently, energy-related behaviors, however, may occur highly and thus tend to become habitual. On basis of the notion that habits represent automatic reactions to situations, and hence, ar...

Energy policy has been a hotly debated issue in many countries for some decades. In contrast to the early debates, the role of the public has gained significant importance. Presently there are numerous examples of expensive facilities which had to be closed or were built and could not be used due to public opposition. These cases are not only expen...

Results of recent experiments suggest that interactive control panels of individual appliances can be used to stimulate energy saving behavior by offering the means for consumers to set a goal and receive immediate energy use feedback. The underlying source of the behavioral response, however, remains unclear. The present study compares the effects...

In this paper we argue that energy conservation is largely a group phenomenon requiring group interventions to achieve change. Persuasive technology can help to provide these interventions. The present study explores the influence of group feedback and individual comparative feedback on energy consumption using an experimental simulation paradigm....

A fundamental characteristic of ambient persuasive technology is the ability to persuade users outside of conscious attention. One method of influencing people outside of their conscious awareness is subliminal priming: Presenting a stimulus for less than 50 milliseconds so people can not consciously perceive it but they are able to process the inf...

Earlier research investigating persuasive technology—technology designed to influence human behavior or attitude—indicates that persuasive technology can stimulate energy-efficient behavior. However, most applications of persuasive technology need people’s focal attention to be successful, and people may often not have these cognitive resources ava...

In the near future, robotic agents might employ persuasion to influence people’s behavior or attitudes, just as human agents do in many situations. People can comply with these requests, but, people can also experience psychological reactance, which may lead to the complete opposite of the proposed behavior. In this study we are interested in the s...

This study investigated the cultural differences of a dual‐motivation model of unhealthy risk behaviour in the Netherlands and Japan. Our model assumes dual motivations involved in unhealthy eating behaviour, a behavioural willingness that leads behaviour unintentionally or subconsciously and a behavioural intention that leads planned or conscious...

In this paper we explore the persuasive effects of social feedback provided by a robotic agent, on behavioral change. In lab experiments, participants had the opportunity to conserve energy while carrying out washing tasks with a simulated washing machine. Three experiments tested the effect of positive and negative social feedback and compared the...

The present study aims at finding variables that influenced subjective norms in determining intention toward forest cutting. The theory of planned behavior was used as the model of the research. A questionnaire was developed based on the model. The questionnaire comprised of two questions assessing intention toward forest cutting, five questions as...

Persuasive technology can influence behavior or attitudes by for example providing interactive factual feedback about energy conservation. However, people often lack motivation or cognitive capacity to consciously process such relative complex information (e.g., numerical consumption feedback). Extending recent research that indicates that ambient...

Delta areas are threatened by global climate change. The general aims of our research were (1) to increase our understanding of climate and flood risk perceptions and the factors that influence these judgments, and (2) to seek for interventions that can contribute to a realistic assessment by laypersons of long-term flooding risks. We argue that aw...

Previous research showed that energy consumption feedback of a social nature resulted in less energy consumption than factual energy consumption feedback. However, it was not clear which elements of social feedback (i.e. evaluation of behavior, the use of speech or the social appearance of the feedback source) caused this higher persuasiveness. In...

Persuasive technology can take the form of a social agent that persuades people to change behavior or attitudes. However, like any persuasive technology, persuasive social agents might trigger psychological reactance, which can lead to restoration behavior. The current study investigated whether interacting with a persuasive robot can cause psychol...

In K. Weiss & F. Girandola (Eds.), Psychologie et développement durable (pp. 175-197). Paris: In Press

Delta areas such as the Netherlands are more and more at risk of future flooding due to global climate change. Motivating residents living in flood-prone areas to effectively cope with local floods may lead to minimization of material losses and loss of life. The aim of this research was to investigate whether the extent to which residents had been...

It is reported that villagers at the villages electrified by micro hydro power (MHP) show more favorable attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward forest conservation. They initiated a community-based agreement regulating forest cutting, reduced trees chopped from the forests, reduced intention toward forest cutting, and even participated in refo...

Most perspectives on public participation share the notion that dialogues should be open, allowing participants to articulate and evaluate different views and knowledge claims. We hypothesize that participants' evaluation of claims may be biased because participants have a preference for a particular type or source of a claim. This would hamper an...

In evaluating complex new technologies, people are usually dependent on information provided by others, for example, experts or journalists, and have to determine whether they can trust these information sources. This article focuses on similarity as the basis for trust. The first experiment (N = 261) confirmed that a journalist writing about genet...

Nowadays, many advertising campaigns attempt to persuade people to perform a specific behavior. In response to such messages, people can comply and adapt their behavior in the proposed direction. However, people can also experience psychological reactance, which may lead to the complete opposite of the target behavior. In the present study, we were...

In this paper we explore a fundamental characteristic of Ambient Persuasive Technology: Can it persuade the user without receiving the user's conscious attention? In a task consisting of 90 trials, participants had to indicate which of three household appliances uses the lowest average amount of energy. After each choice, participants in the supral...

In this paper we explore the persuasive effects of social feedback, as provided by an embodied agent, on behavioral change. In a lab setting, two experiments were conducted in which participants had the opportunity to conserve energy while carrying out washing tasks with a simulated washing machine. The experiments tested the effect of positive and...

Feedback can serve as an intervention aimed at reducing household energy consumption. The present study focused on the effects of agent embodiment on behavioral change through feedback. The effects of agent embodiment were studied for female vs. male users. Also factual feedback was compared to evaluative feedback. An experiment was conducted in wh...

Two experiments explored the persuasive effects of social feedback, as provided by a robotic agent, on behavioral change. Results indicate stronger persuasive effects of social feedback than of factual feedback (Experiment 1) or factual evaluative feedback (Experiment 2), and of negative feedback (especially social but also factual) than of positiv...

There is general recognition that trust and affect are closely connected concepts. Usually, affect is modeled as an antecedent of trust. In the present research, we will argue that, particularly in new situations, trust can also evoke affect toward a risky object. Using structural equation modeling, support was found for the hypothesis that trust i...

Earlier research has investigated persuasive technology: Technology designed to influence human behavior or attitudes. The current research investigates lighting as persuasive technology. In an experimental study, participants could conserve energy while carrying out tasks and received feedback about their energy consumption in each task. We tested...

In this study the moderating role of trust and negative affective associations on the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgements is investigated. A survey (N = 406) was held in the Netherlands on the public perception of new hydrogen systems, during the time that a demonstration project with hydrogen buses was being undertaken. The da...

Two studies tested littering norm activation by trash can design. The first was a scenario study using a 4 (norm type: social injunctive vs. social descriptive vs. personal vs. control) × 2 (activation type: explicit vs. implicit activation) between-group design, with judgments of a litterer as the dependent variable. Explicit norm activation was m...

In this paper sustainable consumption is conceptualized as the result of various types of interactions between users and systems. We review attempts to promote sustainable behavior and discuss contributions by using persuasive technology. In particular, we focus on the appraisal of climate risks and interactive approaches to influence energy consum...

In contrast with most other experimental system trust research, this paper examines indirect information as a basis for trust. In experiment 1, the overall valence of an evaluation concerning a route planner was pitted against a consensus cue, i.e. a favourable opinion about the system endorsed by a minority versus a majority. A positive evaluation...

To advise policy-makers about possible courses of action in the environmental domain, psychological science should employ a support system that allows for evidence-based decisions with respect to the three generic policy questions: what, where, and how. The key to such a system is a measurement instrument in which environmental motivation becomes t...

This article discusses public acceptance of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Responses by citizens are described in relation to responses by professionally involved actors. Interviews with members of the government, industry and environmental NGOs showed that these professional actors are interested in starting up storage projects, based on thorou...

Computational agents can motivate people to change their behaviour towards energy use in a home setting. In this paper, we investigate the design and evaluation of the iParrot, an intelligent agent that helps to persuade family members to conserve energy in their home. The iParrot was designed as a concept in the form of a video prototype with two...

An overview is presented of four ways in which human beings and technology interact with respect to the conservation of natural resources. The four roles technology plays are: (1) as intermediary, (2) as amplifier, (3) as determinant, and (4) as promoter of environmentally significant behavior. A review of pertinent literature supports the conclusi...

Persuasive technology is the general class of technologies that purposefully apply psychological principles of persuasion – principles of credibility, trust, reciprocity, authority and the like – in interactive media, in the service of changing their users’ attitudes and behavior. Only one year ago, in 2006, the first international conference in th...

This paper discusses a framework to assess the quality of participatory methods (e.g. Consensus Conference, Interactive Backcasting, Policy Delphi) to facilitate participatory assessments on complex and controversial issues. To be able to structure a complex or controversial problem, knowledge should be produced. This means that any knowledge, indi...

Food is something very special in our lives. This is not only and exclusively eating, calories and market. In the case of food, we have also to take into account the cultural aspects such as religion and tradition. For example, people were and still are told by religious authorities to eat only fish on Friday or to avoid pork. More recently, in the...