The Role of Social Presence in Interactive Agent-Based Persuasion

This investigation examines the extent to which interactive social agent technology can influence social presence, information processing, and persuasion. Specifically, it looks at how interactive media using virtual agents can increase the sensation of social presence, or the extent to which a person feels “with” a mediated being. Using logic based on the Heuristic Systematic Model (HSM), social presence is posited to impact indicators of heuristic and systematic processing, leading to changes in attitude and intention toward a health issue. A 2 × 2 between subjects experiment was conducted (N = 125) with manipulations of interactivity (interactive or not) and source attractiveness (attractive or unattractive). Results of causal model tests suggest that interactive agents facilitate social presence leading to increased message processing, which in turn affects both attitude and behavioral intentions toward the issue of healthy blood pressure. Contrary to expectations, however, social presence with an unattractive source did not impede attitude and intentions. These findings are interpreted in light of presence, new media, and HSM scholarship.