Authors:
Tetsuya Matsui
1
and
Seiji Yamada
2
;
3
Affiliations:
1
Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka City, Osaka, Japan
;
2
National Institute of Informatics, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
;
3
Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Keyword(s):
Human-Agent Interaction, Virtual Agent, Virtual Teacher, Educational Engineering, Pedagogical Agent, Social Issue.
Abstract:
Virtual teachers (VTs) are an area of focus for the practical application of virtual agents. We focused on a VT design method for teaching adults about social issues. On the basis of prior research, we hypothesized that a robot-like VT would be perceived by students as more neutral. To verify this hypothesis, we conducted a two-factor two-level experiment. One factor was the participants’ gender, and the other was the VTs’ appearance. We used two types of VTs: human-like and robot-like. In the experiment, these VTs gave a lesson about a quota system for females. The participants answered a questionnaire on how much they would favor introducing a quota system after watching a lesson movie presented by a VT. We conducted a two-way ANOVA for the result of the questionnaire. As a result, female participants were more strongly affected by the robot-like VT than the human-like VT. We suggest that this needs to be considered when designing VTs that teach about social issues.