Perception of Virtual Agents as Communicators in Virtual vs. Augmented Reality by a Male Sample

Virtual agents are often employed in persuasive applications, and different studies in the literature have shown that the gender of the agent may have an impact on how users perceive the agent as a communicator. This paper adds a new variable to this line of research, considering the possible effects of presenting the agent in Virtual Reality (VR) vs. Augmented Reality (AR). We measured attentional allocation, perceived affective understanding, speaker credibility and speaker strength. While attentional allocation was the same in all conditions, an interesting pattern emerged for the other variables. The transition from VR to AR apparently changed the perception of some communicator aspects to the advantage of the female virtual agent. We also found associations between participants’ personality traits (in particular, extraversion) and perception of the agent. The paper describes and discusses these findings.