Computers are social actors

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Computers are social actors (CASA) is a paradigm which states that humans unthinkingly apply the same social heuristics used for human interactions to computers, because they call to mind similar social attributes as humans. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History and context

Clifford Nass and Youngme Moon's scientific article, "Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers", published in 2000 in the Journal of Social Issues, is the origin for CASA. It states that CASA is the concept that people mindlessly apply social rules and expectations to computers, even though they know that these machines do not have feelings, intentions or human motivations.

In their 2000 article, Nass and Moon attribute their observation of anthropocentric reactions to computers and previous research on mindlessness as factors that lead them to study the phenomenon of computers as social actors. Specifically, they observed consistent anthropocentric treatment of computers by individuals in natural and lab settings, even though these individuals agreed that computers are not human and shouldn't be treated as such.

Additionally, Nass and Moon found a similarity between this behavior and research by Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer on mindlessness. Langer states that mindlessness is when a specific context triggers an individual to rely on categories, associations, and habits of thought from the past with little to no conscious awareness. When these contexts are triggered, the individual becomes oblivious to novel or alternative aspects of the situation. In this respect, mindlessness is similar to habits and routines, but different in that with only one exposure to information, a person will create a cognitive commitment to the information and freeze its potential meaning. With mindlessness, alternative meanings or uses of the information become unavailable for active cognitive use. [4] [5]

Social attributes that computers have which are similar to humans include:

According to CASA, the above attributes trigger scripts for human-human interaction, which leads an individual to ignore cues revealing the asocial nature of a computer. Although individuals using computers exhibit a mindless social response to the computer, individuals who are sensitive to the situation can observe the inappropriateness of the cued social behaviors. [6] CASA has been extended to include robots and AI. [7] [8] However, recently, there have been challenges to the CASA paradigm. [9] [10] To account for the advances in technology, MASA has been forwarded as a significant extension of CASA. [11]

Attributes

Cued social behaviors observed in research settings include some of the following:

Academic research

Three research articles have represented some of the advances in the field of CASA. Researchers in this field are looking at how novel variables, manipulations, and new computer software influence mindlessness.

One example of how CASA research can impact consumer behaviour and attitude is Moon's experiment, which tested the application of the principle of reciprocity and disclosure in a consumer context. Moon tested this principle with intimate self-disclosure of high-risk information (when disclosure makes the person feel vulnerable) to a computer, and observed how that disclosure affects future attitudes and behaviors. Participants interacted with a computer which questioned them using reciprocal wording and gradual revealing of intimate information, then participants did a puzzle on paper, and finally half the group went back to the same computer and the other half went to a different computer. Both groups were shown 20 products and asked if they would purchase them. Participants who used the same computer throughout the experiment had a higher purchase likelihood score and a higher attraction score toward the computer in the product presentation than participants who did not use the same computer throughout the experiment. [20] Studies also show that CASA can be applied to virtual influencers by showing that human-like appearance of virtual influencers show higher message credibility than anime-like virtual influencers. [21]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Nass, C. and Y. Moon, Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers. Journal of Social Issues, 2000. 56(1).
  2. ↑ Reeves, B. and C.I. Nass, The media equation : how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. 1996, Stanford, Calif.; New York: CSLI Publications ; Cambridge University Press.
  3. ↑ Nass, C.I. and S. Brave, Wired for speech : how voice activates and advances the human-computer relationship. 2005, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  4. ↑ Langer, E., Matters of mind: Mindfulness/mindlessness in perspective. Consciousness and Cognition Consciousness and Cognition, 1992. 1(3): p. 289-305.
  5. ↑ Langer, E.J., Mindfulness. 1989, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
  6. ↑ Nass, C. and Y. Moon, Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers. Journal of Social Issues, 2000. 56(1).
  7. ↑ Lee, Kwan Min; Park, Namkee; Song, Hayeon (2005). "Can a Robot Be Perceived as a Developing Creature?". Human Communication Research. 31 (4): 538–563. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2005.tb00882.x. ISSN   1468-2958.
  8. ↑ Edwards, Chad; Edwards, Autumn; Spence, Patric R.; Shelton, Ashleigh K. (2014-04-01). "Is that a bot running the social media feed? Testing the differences in perceptions of communication quality for a human agent and a bot agent on Twitter". Computers in Human Behavior. 33: 372–376. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.08.013. ISSN   0747-5632.
  9. ↑ Gambino, Andrew; Fox, Jesse; Ratan, Rabindra (2020-02-01). "Building a Stronger CASA: Extending the Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm". Human-Machine Communication. 1: 71–86. doi: 10.30658/hmc.1.5 . ISSN   2638-6038.
  10. ↑ Fortunati, Leopoldina; Edwards, Autumn (2021-04-15). "Moving Ahead With Human-Machine Communication". Human-Machine Communication. 2 (1): 7–28. doi: 10.30658/hmc.2.1 . hdl: 11390/1246431 . ISSN   2638-6038.
  11. ↑ Lombard, Matthew; Xu, Kun (2021-04-15). "Social Responses to Media Technologies in the 21st Century: The Media are Social Actors Paradigm". Human-Machine Communication. 2 (1): 29–55. doi: 10.30658/hmc.2.2 . ISSN   2638-6038.
  12. ↑ Nass, C., Y. Moon, and N. Green, Are machines gender neutral? Gender-stereotypic responses to computers with voices. J Appl Soc Psychol Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1997. 27: p. 864-76.
  13. ↑ Fogg, B.J., & Nass, C. I., How users reciprocate to computers: An experiment that demonstrates behavior change. CHI Extended Abstract. 1997, New York: ACM Press.
  14. ↑ Nass, C. and Y. Moon, Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers. Journal of Social Issues, 2000. 56(1).
  15. ↑ Nass, C. and K.M. Lee, Does computer-synthesized speech manifest personality? Experimental tests of recognition, similarity-attraction, and consistency-attraction [ dead link ]. Journal of experimental psychology. Applied, 2001. 7(3): p. 171-81.
  16. ↑ Moon, Y. and C. Nass, How "Real" Are Computer Personalities? Psychological Responses to Personality Types in Human-Computer Interaction. Communication Research, 1996. 23(6): p. 651-74.
  17. ↑ Lee, E.-J., What Triggers Social Responses to Flattering Computers? Experimental Tests of Anthropomorphism and Mindlessness Explanations. Commun Res Communication Research, 2010. 37(2): p. 191-214.
  18. ↑ Antos, D., De Melo, C., Gratch, J., & Grosz, B. The Influence of Emotion Expression on Perceptions of Trustworthiness in Negotiation. in Twenty-Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2011. San Francisco: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
  19. ↑ Hong, S., and Sundar, S. S., Social Responses to Computers in Cloud Computing Environment: The Importance of Source Orientation. ACM, 2011. CHI 2011, May 7–12, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
  20. ↑ Moon, Y., Intimate exchanges: using computers to elicit self-disclosure from consumers. Communication Abstracts, 2000. 23(5).
  21. ↑ Kim, EA., D. Kim, Z. E, and H. Shoenberger, The next hype in social media advertising: Examining virtual influencers’ brand endorsement effectiveness. Frontiers in Psychology, 2023. 14:1089051.
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