How do Lonely, Young Adults Perceive Interactive Technologies With Varying Human-Likeness? An Experimental Lab Study

For young adults in particular, it is proposed that interactive technologies can help alleviate loneliness. However, while state loneliness was found to lead to a more positive evaluation of interactive technologies, general loneliness was found to have the opposite effect. Since interactive technologies vary regarding their human-likeness in appearance and behavior, it needs to be investigated how this affects the perception of young adults while considering potential effects of their loneliness. In an experimental lab study with a 2x2 between-subjects design, 101 participants aged 18-35 years interacted either with a social robot or a voice assistant which either displayed a rather human-like or machine-like communication style. General and state loneliness were assessed alongside evaluations of the interactive technology. Overall, the participants appeared to be more comfortable the more their interaction partner looked and talked in a human-like manner. The self-reported state loneliness was very low and appeared to have no influence on evaluations. General loneliness hints towards a trend towards a more negative evaluation of the interactive technology’s social attractiveness - a finding that should be further investigated in future studies.