The DOI matches its Crossref record; 93 of the 94 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Avatars Versus Agents: A Meta-Analysis Quantifying the Effect of Agency on Social Influence
Abstract
Existing research has investigated whether virtual representations perceived to be controlled by humans (i.e., avatars) or those perceived to be controlled by computer algorithms (i.e., agents) are more influential. A meta-analysis (N = 32) examined the model of social influence in virtual environments (Blascovich, 2002) and investigated whether agents and avatars in virtual environments elicit different levels of social influence. Results indicated that perceived avatars produced stronger responses than perceived agents. Level of immersion (desktop vs. fully immersive), dependent variable type (subjective vs. objective), task type (competitive vs. cooperative vs. neutral), and actual control of the representation (human vs. computer) were examined as moderators. An interaction effect revealed that studies conducted on a desktop that used objective measures showed a stronger effect for agency than those that were conducted on a desktop but used subjective measures. Competitive and cooperative tasks showed greater agency effects than neutral tasks. Studies in which both conditions were actually human controlled showed greater agency effects than studies in which both conditions were actually computer controlled. We discuss theoretical and design implications for human–computer interaction and computer-mediated communication.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Additionally, considerable evidence suggests that humans perceive media agents differently from how they perceive humans (e.g., Blascovich et al., 2002; Fox et al., 2015; Krämer et al., 2012).”
From Building a Stronger CASA: Extending the Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm (2020) · cites this paper as Fox et al., 2015
In the citing paper
“Previous work has found that the mere perceived identity of the partner as computer or human has profound effects, even when actual identity does not (Fox et al., 2015; Lucas, Gratch, King, & Morency, 2014).”
From Psychological, Relational, and Emotional Effects of Self-Disclosure After Conversations With a Chatbot (2018) · cites this paper as Fox et al., 2015
Citations
Cites
The psychology of interpersonal relations
Heider, F. (1958) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2089062 · Cited by 17,189
The psychology of interpersonal relations.
Heider, F. (1958) · doi:10.1037/10628-000 · Cited by 13,457
An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2000) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780199269464.003.0005 · Cited by 12,701
The Social psychology of intergroup relations
Austin, W. G., & Worchel, S. (1979) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 11,577
(1997) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-3702 · Cited by 4,872
(2004) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.41-3182 · Cited by 4,740
Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers
Nass, C., & Moon, Y. (2000) · Journal of Social Issues · doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00153 · Cited by 4,022
At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence
Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. B. (2006) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00072.x · Cited by 4,021
Influence : science and practice
Cialdini, R. B. (1985) · Cited by 3,581
Social Facilitation: A solution is suggested for an old unresolved social psychological problem.
Zajonc, R. B. (1965) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.149.3681.269 · Cited by 2,951
Toward a More Robust Theory and Measure of Social Presence: Review and Suggested Criteria
Biocca, F. A., Harms, C., & Burgoon, J. K. (2003) · PRESENCE Virtual and Augmented Reality · doi:10.1162/105474603322761270 · Cited by 2,365
Kelman, H. C. (1961) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1086/266996 · Cited by 2,181
Embodied Conversational Agents
(2000) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/2697.001.0001 · Cited by 1,829
Meta-Analysis: Recent Developments in Quantitative Methods for Literature Reviews
Rosenthal, R., & DiMatteo, M. R. (2001) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.59 · Cited by 1,780
Lee, K. M. (2004) · Communication Theory · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00302.x · Cited by 1,631
Bukimi no tani [the uncanny valley]
Mori, M. (1970) · Energy · Cited by 1,485
Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A. C., Swinth, K. R., Hoyt, C. L., & Bailenson, J. N. (2002) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1302_01 · Cited by 1,280
Self-citationFeldman, J. M., Hunter, J. E., Schmidt, F. L., & Jackson, G. B. (1984) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258247 · Cited by 1,203
Nowak, K. L., & Biocca, F. (2003) · Presence - Teleoperators and Virtual Environments · doi:10.1162/105474603322761289 · Cited by 1,162
Zadro, L., Williams, K. D., & Richardson, R. (2004) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006 · Cited by 1,138
Influence: science and practice
Giebels, E. (2008) · University of Twente Research Information · Cited by 1,044
Interpersonal Distance in Immersive Virtual Environments
Bailenson, J., Blascovich, J., Beall, A., & Loomis, J. (2003) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167203029007002 · Cited by 851
Self-citationNass, C., Fogg, B. J., & Moon, Y. (1996) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1006/ijhc.1996.0073 · Cited by 536
The Scope and Importance of Human Interruption in Human-Computer Interaction Design
McFarlane, D. C., & Latorella, K. A. (2002) · Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1207/s15327051hci1701_1 · Cited by 536
A characterization of performance by men and women in a virtual Morris water task:
Astur, R. S., Ortiz, M. L., & Sutherland, R. J. (1998) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(98)00019-9 · Cited by 533
Bente, G., Rüggenberg, S., Krämer, N. C., & Eschenburg, F. (2008) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00322.x · Cited by 525
Using psychophysiological techniques to measure user experience with entertainment technologies
Mandryk, R. L., Inkpen, K. M., & Calvert, T. W. (2006) · Behaviour and Information Technology · doi:10.1080/01449290500331156 · Cited by 516
Fox, J., & Bailenson, J. N. (2009) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260802669474 · Cited by 493
Self-citationIntelligibility and Accountability: Human Considerations in Context-Aware Systems
Bellotti, V., & Edwards, K. (2001) · Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1207/s15327051hci16234_05 · Cited by 471
Weibel, D., Wissmath, B., Habegger, S., Steiner, Y., & Groner, R. (2008) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.11.002 · Cited by 452
The effects of violent video games on aggression. A meta-analysis
Sherry, J. (2001) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1093/hcr/27.3.409 · Cited by 445
Anthropomorphic Interactions with a Robot and Robot–like Agent
Kiesler, S. B., Powers, A., Fussell, S. R., & Torrey, C. (2008) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.169 · Cited by 409
Fox, J., Arena, D., & Bailenson, J. N. (2009) · Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications · doi:10.1027/1864-1105.21.3.95 · Cited by 406
Self-citationHow Colorful Was Your Day? Why Questionnaires Cannot Assess Presence in Virtual Environments
Slater, M. (2004) · Presence - Teleoperators and Virtual Environments · doi:10.1162/1054746041944849 · Cited by 402
Creating interactive virtual humans: some assembly required
Gratch, J. S., Rickel, J. W., André, E., Cassell, J., Petajan, E. D., & Badler, N. I. (2002) · IEEE Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1109/mis.2002.1024753 · Cited by 389
“It doesn’t matter what you are!” Explaining social effects of agents and avatars
von der Pütten, A. M., Krämer, N. C., Gratch, J., & Kang, S.-H. (2010) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.06.012 · Cited by 389
The effects of violent video games on aggression..
Sherry, J. L. (2001) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00787.x · Cited by 363
Teachable Agents and the Protégé Effect: Increasing the Effort Towards Learning
Chase, C. C., Chin, D. B., Oppezzo, M. A., & Schwartz, D. L. (2009) · Journal of Science Education and Technology · doi:10.1007/s10956-009-9180-4 · Cited by 347
Rosenthal, R. (1991) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-199105000-00001 · Cited by 329
Social Dialongue with Embodied Conversational Agents
Bickmore, T., & Cassell, J. (2005) · Text, Speech and Language Technology · doi:10.1007/1-4020-3933-6_2 · Cited by 324
Spatial Presence and Emotions during Video Game Playing: Does It Matter with Whom You Play?
Ravaja, N., Saari, T., Turpeinen, M., Laarni, J., Salminen, M., & Kivikangas, M. (2006) · PRESENCE Virtual and Augmented Reality · doi:10.1162/pres.15.4.381 · Cited by 322
Infinite reality: avatars, eternal life, new worlds, and the dawn of the virtual revolution
School, N. Y. L. (2012) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.49-3824 · Cited by 308
Virtual Humans and Persuasion: The Effects of Agency and Behavioral Realism
Guadagno, R. E., Blascovich, J., Bailenson, J. N., & Mccall, C. (2007) · Cited by 307
Self-citationVoices, Boxes, and Sources of Messages.
Nass, C., & Steuer, J. (1993) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1993.tb00311.x · Cited by 278
Ivory, J., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2007) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00356.x · Cited by 275
Fox, J., Bailenson, J. N., & Tricase, L. (2013) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.027 · Cited by 274
Self-citationSocial Influence within Immersive Virtual Environments
Blascovich, J. (2002) · Computer supported cooperative work · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-0277-9_8 · Cited by 267
Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., & Rickertsen, K. (2007) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1240624.1240626 · Cited by 243
Self-citationLim, S., & Reeves, B. (2010) · Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.09.008 · Cited by 226
Morkes, J., Kernal, H. K., & Nass, C. (1999) · Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1207/s15327051hci1404_2 · Cited by 213
Social Inhibition in Immersive Virtual Environments
Hoyt, C. L., Blascovich, J., & Swinth, K. R. (2003) · Presence - Teleoperators and Virtual Environments · doi:10.1162/105474603321640932 · Cited by 205
The Effect of Interactivity on Learning Physical Actions in Virtual Reality
Bailenson, J. N., Patel, K., Nielsen, A., Bajscy, R., Jung, S.-H., & Kurillo, G. (2008) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260802285214 · Cited by 190
Self-citationShared Fun Is Doubled Fun: Player Enjoyment as a Function of Social Setting
Gajadhar, B., de Kort, Y., & Ijsselsteijn, W. (2008) · Fun and Games · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-88322-7_11 · Cited by 184
The Role of Social Presence in Interactive Agent-Based Persuasion
Skalski, P., & Tamborini, R. (2007) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260701533102 · Cited by 181
The Influence of Anthropomorphism and Agency on Social Judgment in Virtual Environments
Nowak, K. L. (2006) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00284.x · Cited by 174
Eastin, M. S. (2006) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2006.00279.x · Cited by 173
Levine, T. R., Asada, K. J. K., & Carpenter, C. (2009) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637750903074685 · Cited by 170
Gong, L., & Nass, C. (2007) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00295.x · Cited by 168
What Can Virtual Reality Teach Us About Prosocial Tendencies in Real and Virtual Environments?
Gillath, O., McCall, C., Shaver, P. R., & Blascovich, J. (2008) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260801906489 · Cited by 159
Self-Endorsing Versus Other-Endorsing in Virtual Environments
Ahn, S. J., & Bailenson, J. N. (2011) · Journal of Advertising · doi:10.2753/joa0091-3367400207 · Cited by 152
Self-citationVirtually True: Children's Acquisition of False Memories in Virtual Reality
Segovia, K. Y., & Bailenson, J. N. (2009) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260903287267 · Cited by 146
Self-citationAggression, competition and computer games: computer and human opponents
Williams, R. B., & Clippinger, C. A. (2002) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0747-5632(02)00009-2 · Cited by 142
Is it a game? Evidence for social influence in the virtual world
Eastwick, P. W., & Gardner, W. L. (2008) · Social Influence · doi:10.1080/15534510802254087 · Cited by 141
Appel, J., von der Pütten, A. M., Krämer, N. C., & Gratch, J. S. (2012) · Advances in Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1155/2012/324694 · Cited by 133
Barlett, C. P., & Rodeheffer, C. D. (2009) · Aggressive Behavior · doi:10.1002/ab.20279 · Cited by 119
Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution
McCall, R. (2011) · PRESENCE Virtual and Augmented Reality · doi:10.1162/pres_r_00068 · Cited by 114
Advances in Natural Multimodal Dialogue Systems
(2005) · Text, Speech and Language Technology · doi:10.1007/1-4020-3933-6 · Cited by 99
Eastin, M. S., & Griffiths, R. P. (2006) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650206293249 · Cited by 89
Social evaluations of embodied agents and avatars
Guadagno, R., Swinth, K. R., & Blascovich, J. (2011) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.017 · Cited by 88
Gajadhar, B. J., Nap, H. H., de Kort, Y. A. W., & IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2010) · International Conference on Fun and Games · doi:10.1145/1823818.1823826 · Cited by 84
Gerhard, M., Moore, D., & Hobbs, D. (2001) · International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents · doi:10.1007/3-540-44812-8_12 · Cited by 77
Bailenson, J. N., Guadagno, R. E., Aharoni, E., Dimov, A., Beall, A. C., & Blascovich, J. (2004) · Cited by 76
Self-citationEmbodiments, avatars, clones and agents for multi-user, multi-sensory virtual worlds
Benford, S., Bowers, J., Fahl�n, L. E., Greenhalgh, C., & Snowdon, D. (1997) · Multimedia Systems · doi:10.1007/s005300050045 · Cited by 75
Lee, E. (2010) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650209356389 · Cited by 72
Human-Computer Interaction: The Agency Perspective
(2012) · Studies in Computational Intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25691-2 · Cited by 72
(2010) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203892336 · Cited by 71
Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace
(2020) · Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp · Cited by 68
Lee, J.-E. R., Nass, C., Brave, S., Morishima, Y., Nakajima, H., & Yamada, R. (2006) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00339.x · Cited by 61
Persky, S., & Blascovich, J. (2007) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260701301236 · Cited by 55
Toward Spoken Human–Computer Tutorial Dialogues
D’Mello, S. K., Graesser, A. C., & King, B. G. (2010) · Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/07370024.2010.499850 · Cited by 50
The Psychophysiology of Digital Gaming: The Effect of a Non Co-Located Opponent
Ravaja, N. (2009) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260903052240 · Cited by 48
Brain Activity Dissociates Mentalization from Motivation During an Interpersonal Competitive Game
Assaf, M., Kahn, I., Pearlson, G. D., Johnson, M. R., Yeshurun, Y., Calhoun, V. D., & Hendler, T. (2008) · Brain Imaging and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11682-008-9047-y · Cited by 48
NDM-Based Cognitive Agents for Supporting Decision-Making Teams
Fan, X., McNeese, M. D., & Yen, J. (2010) · Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/07370020903586720 · Cited by 38
Gender Stereotyping of Computers: Resource Depletion or Reduced Attention?
Lee, E. (2008) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00386.x · Cited by 34
Wii Tennis Play for Low-Income African American Adolescents' Energy Expenditure.
Staiano, A. E., & Calvert, S. L. (2011) · PubMed · Cited by 28
User-State Sensing for Virtual Health Agents and TeleHealth Applications
Gratch, J. S., Morency, L., Scherer, S. J., Stratou, G., Boberg, J., Koenig, S. T., Adamson, T., & Rizzo, A. (2013) · Studies in health technology and informatics · doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-209-7-151 · Cited by 26
Perspectives on Agency Interacting with and through Personal Robots
Takayama, L. A. (2012) · Studies in computational intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25691-2_8 · Cited by 25
Merritt, T. R., McGee, K., Chuah, T. L., & Ong, C. (2011) · International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) · doi:10.1145/2159365.2159392 · Cited by 22
Protecting artificial team-mates
Merritt, T. R., & McGee, K. (2012) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2207676.2208680 · Cited by 21
Understanding and using Meta-Analysis
Preiss, R. W., & Allen, M. R. (1995) · Evaluation & the Health Professions · doi:10.1177/016327879501800306 · Cited by 21
Closing the human-AI team-mate gap
Ong, C., McGee, K., & Chuah, T. L. (2012) · Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI) · doi:10.1145/2414536.2414604 · Cited by 16
Effect of Emotion and Articulation of Speech on the Uncanny Valley in Virtual Characters
Tinwell, A., Grimshaw, M., & Nabi, D. A. (2011) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24571-8_69 · Cited by 14
Did You Notice? Artificial Team-Mates Take Risks for Players
Merritt, T. R., Ong, C., Chuah, T. L., & McGee, K. (2011) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-23974-8_37 · Cited by 13
Research works printed but not linked: 18
- Ahn S. J., Framing virtual experiences: Effects on environmental efficacy and behavior over time
- 10.1177/0146167203029007002 · DOI
- 10.1007/s10956-009-9180-4 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2006.00279 · DOI
- 10.1027/1864-1105.21.3.95 · DOI
- Gajadhar B. J., 2008, Proceedings of the FnG 2008 International Conference on Fun and Games
- 10.1080/15213260701300865 · DOI
- 10.2307/2746461 · DOI
- Merritt T., 2012, Proceedings of the CHI 2012 Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems
- Merritt T., 2011, Proceedings of the FDG 2011 International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games
- Mori M., 1970, Energy, 7, 33
- 10.1080/01449290500331156 · DOI
- Okita S. Y., 2008, Proceedings of the ICSL 2008 International Conference on International Conference for the Learning Sciences
- Ong C., 2012, Proceedings of the CHI 2012 Australian Computer–Human Interaction Conference
- 10.1080/15213260701301236 · DOI
- Segovia K. Y., Virtual first impressions and their persistence in the physical world
- Swinth K. R., 2001, Conformity to group norms in an immersive virtual environment
- Yee N., 2007, Proceedings of the CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Human trust in artificial intelligence: Review of empirical research
Glikson, E., & Woolley, A. W. (2020) · Academy of Management Annals · doi:10.5465/annals.2018.0057 · Cited by 2,921
A Systematic Review of Social Presence: Definition, Antecedents, and Implications
Oh, C. S., Bailenson, J. N., & Welch, G. F. (2018) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2018.00114 · Cited by 1,032
Self-citationActor engagement as a microfoundation for value co-creation
Storbacka, K., Brodie, R. J., Böhmann, T., Maglio, P. P., & Nenonen, S. (2016) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.034 · Cited by 851
An Emerging Theory of Avatar Marketing
Miao, F., Kozlenkova, I. V., Wang, H., Xie, T., & Palmatier, R. W. (2022) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1177/0022242921996646 · Cited by 688
Ho, A., Hancock, J., & Miner, A. S. (2018) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1093/joc/jqy026 · Cited by 629
“Previous work has found that the mere perceived identity of the partner as computer or human has profound effects, even when actual identity does not (Fox et al., 2015; Lucas, Gratch, King, & Morency, 2014).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Fox, J., Ahn, S. J. (., Janssen, J. H., Yeykelis, L., Segovia, K. Y., & Bailenson, J. N.
- Affiliations
- The Ohio State University (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Human–Computer Interaction
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-05-12
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 401-432
- ISSN
- 0737-0024 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7051
- OpenAlex
- W1964044925
- Cited by
- 320
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 1.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Human-Computer Interaction (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- NSF (0966838)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Keywords
- social influence, avatars, computational agents, perceived agency, virtual worlds, immersion, computer-mediated communication
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
