The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
White Elephant or Happiness Goodies? The Effect of User Personality on the Perception of Digital Companionship of Smart Speaker
Abstract
With the popularity of smart speakers, companionship has emerged as an important aspect of user experiences with these devices. While previous studies have primarily focused on users’ adoption and intentions for continuous AI product usage, only a limited number of qualitative studies have identified the nascent concept of digital companionship. However, these studies often lack a comprehensive elucidation of the underlying psychological motivations. Therefore, this study aims to explore how certain users perceive digital companionship within the context of smart speakers and elucidate the motivations driving these parasocial needs. Our investigation adopts a Human-Centered AI perspective for a deeper understanding. A survey was conducted, encompassing 460 valid questionnaires. The findings underscore the influence of user personality on their psychological perceptions of smart speakers. Specifically, extroverted and conscientious users tend to view smart speakers as sources of happiness, akin to “happiness goodies.” Conversely, other users tend to perceive the companionship of smart speakers less strongly, akin to “white elephants.” Notably, our research reveals that perceived attraction and intimacy jointly mediate the influence of user personality traits, including extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, on digital companionship. This study contributes to illustrating why AI-based products, such as smart speakers, could be regarded as friends by digital compani…
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
“AI companions offering substantial emotional support can help users develop meaningful connections that help minimize feelings of loneliness (Ma and Huo, 2025).”
From I love you, my AI companion! Do you? Perspectives from the Triangular Theory of Love and Attachment Theory (2026) · cites this paper as Ma and Huo, 2025
Citations
Cites
Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction
Horton, D., & Richard Wohl, R. (1956) · Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049 · Cited by 4,380
Luo, X., Tong, S., Fang, Z., & Qu, Z. (2019) · Marketing Science · doi:10.1287/mksc.2019.1192 · Cited by 1,262 · cited 1×
“Many platforms and brands have launched chatbots as company representatives to help consumers on the Internet anytime and anywhere (Luo et al., 2019; Chung et al., 2020).”
Shneiderman, B. (2020) · ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1145/3419764 · Cited by 768
Kaya, F., Aydin, F., Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Yetişensoy, O., & Demir Kaya, M. (2024) · International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2022.2151730 · Cited by 688
Park, J., & Woo, S. E. (2022) · The Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1080/00223980.2021.2012109 · Cited by 243
Kim, S., & Choudhury, A. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106914 · Cited by 200 · cited 2×
“A 16-week study conducted by Kim and Choudhury (2021) in elderly families revealed that voice assistant users develop digital friendships over time.”
Gasteiger, N., Loveys, K., Law, M., & Broadbent, E. (2021) · Clinical Interventions in Aging · doi:10.2147/cia.s282709 · Cited by 153
Lee, K., Lee, K. Y., & Sheehan, L. (2020) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-019-09975-1 · Cited by 95
Chatbot Personalities Matters: Improving the User Experience of Chatbot Interfaces
Smestad, T. L., & Volden, F. (2019) · Lecture Notes in Computer Science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17705-8_15 · Cited by 52
Research works printed but not linked: 88
- 10.1016/j.chb.2004.09.002 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2018.03.051 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.tourman.2018.01.003 · DOI
- 10.1080/10447318.2020.1841404 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.im.2015.08.001 · DOI
- 10.1057/ejis.2014.10 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037//0022-3514.51.6.1173 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102309 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1145/1963564.1963565 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107617 · DOI
- 10.1080/1369118X.2020.1713845 · DOI
- 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08091320 · DOI
- 10.1177/1461444818817074 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-64069-3 · DOI
- 10.3390/su13020602 · DOI
- 10.1145/3290607.3313045 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-50309-3_21 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122634 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1108/IMDS-12-2020-0761 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121550 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.tele.2021.101628 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.004 · DOI
- 10.1002/mar.21001 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.robot.2013.07.007 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1007/s12369-016-0340-4 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110483 · DOI
- 10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.1 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2008.00573.x · DOI
- 10.1086/707731 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2023.107693 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.trf.2019.08.011 · DOI
- 10.1037//0022-3514.59.6.1216 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1080/08839514.2013.835230 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.intmar.2016.07.001 · DOI
- 10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-0214 · DOI
- 10.1108/JRIM-11-2019-0179 · DOI
- 10.1080/02642069.2021.2008913 · DOI
- 10.1145/3313831.3376529 · DOI
- 10.1108/JRIM-03-2022-0089 · DOI
- John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, 2(1999), 102–138.
- 10.1108/JRIM-01-2018-0022 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.019 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.031 · DOI
- 10.1108/INTR-01-2021-0030 · DOI
- 10.1080/02650487.2020.1765657 · DOI
- 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00318.x · DOI
- 10.1504/IJMC.2013.056956 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.tele.2021.101721 · DOI
- 10.1007/s10660-019-09381-4 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102334 · DOI
- 10.1080/10447318.2023.2238974 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.jhtm.2023.10.003 · DOI
- 10.1093/iwc/iwt055 · DOI
- 10.1080/10447318.2022 · DOI
- 10.1287/isre.1040.0032 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1080/03637757409375845 · DOI
- 10.2307/25148821 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.009 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.045 · DOI
- 10.1080/10447318.2019.1663008 · DOI
- 10.1145/3340764.3344879 · DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568256 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102160 · DOI
- 10.3758/brm.40.3.879 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1305428 · DOI
- 10.1002/mar.21441 · DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.659994 · DOI
- 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1987.tb00129.x · DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.787499 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.im.2022.103595 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037/0003-066X.52.10.1030 · DOI
- 10.1145/3313831.3376225 · DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.719008 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108504 · DOI
- 10.4018/JGIM.20210701.oa10 · DOI
- 10.1145/3428361.3428469 · DOI
- 10.1145/3313831.3376561 · DOI
- 10.1007/s10660-023-09741-1 · DOI
- 10.1080/10447318.2011.622971 · DOI
- 10.1002/mar.21437 · DOI
- 10.1080/19392397.2021.2006730 · DOI
- 10.1108/IMDS-01-2016-0017 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.12.035 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.11.008 · DOI
- 10.1108/INTR-04-2019-0142 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101571 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ng, P. M. L., Wan, C., Lee, D., Garnelo-Gomez, I., & Lau, M. M. (2026) · Internet Research · doi:10.1108/intr-11-2024-1783 · Cited by 27
Metadata
- Authors
- Ma, X., & Huo, Y.
- Affiliations
- School of Journalism and New Media, Xi’an Jiaotong University
- Venue
- International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2024-01-22
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 627-640
- ISSN
- 1044-7318
- 1532-7590
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 9
- Language
- en
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (72174164)
- National Social Science Foundation of China (21&ZD320)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural
- Creative Industry, and from Zizhu National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone
- Zizhu New Media Management Research Center
- International Association of Cultural and Creative Industry Research
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
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: White Elephant or Happiness Goodies? The Effect of User Personality on the Perception of Digital Companionship of Smart Speaker. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/10447318.2024.2303554
- The paper
- Ma, X., & Huo, Y. (2025). White Elephant or Happiness Goodies? The Effect of User Personality on the Perception of Digital Companionship of Smart Speaker. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2303554
