Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 216

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The effects of animated characters on anxiety, task performance, and evaluations of user interfaces

Open access
Rickenberg, Raoul, Reeves, Byron·2000·Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
DOI 10.1145/332040.332406
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Animated characters are common in user interfaces, but important questions remain about whether characters work in all situations and for all users. This experiment tested the effects of different character presentations on user anxiety, task performance, and subjective evaluations of two commerce websites. There were three character conditions (no character, a character that ignored the user, and a character that closely monitored work on the website). Users were separated into two groups that had different attitudes about accepting help from others: people with control orientations that were external (users thought that other people controlled their success) and those with internal orientations (users thought they were in control). Results showed that the effects of monitoring and individual differences in thoughts about control worked as they do in real life. Users felt more anxious when characters monitored their website work and this effect was strongest for users with an external control orientation. Monitoring characters also decreased task performance, but increased trust in website content. Results are discussed in terms of design considerations that maximize the positive influence of animated agents.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1145/332040.332406

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 3 references

Research works printed but not linked: 30

  1. Aiello , J.R. & Kolb , K. 3. (,1995). Electronic performance monitoring: A risk factor for workplace stress . In S. Sauter & ; L. Murphy (Eds.), Organizational Risk Factors for Job Stress . Washington, DC : American Psychological Association . Aiello, J.R. & Kolb, K.3. (,1995). Electronic performance monitoring: A risk factor for workplace stress. In S. Sauter & L. Murphy (Eds.), Organizational Risk Factors for Job Stress. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  2. Aiello , J.R. & Svec , C.M. ( 1993 ). Computer monitoring of work performance: Extending the social facilitation framework to electronic presence . Journal of Applied Psychology, 23(7). Aiello, J.R. & Svec, C.M. (1993). Computer monitoring of work performance: Extending the social facilitation framework to electronic presence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 23(7).
  3. Ball , G. & Breese , J. ( 1998 ). Emotion and personality in a conversational character . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Ball, G. & Breese, J. (1998). Emotion and personality in a conversational character. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  4. Becheiraz , P. & Thalmann , D. ( 1998 ). A behavioral animation system for autonomous actors personified by emotions . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Becheiraz, P. & Thalmann, D. (1998). A behavioral animation system for autonomous actors personified by emotions. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  5. Cassell , J. & Th 6risson, K.R. ( 1999 ). The power of a nod and a glance: Envelope vs. emotional feedback in animated conversational agents. Applied Artificial intelligence, 13 . Cassell, J. & Th6risson, K.R. (1999). The power of a nod and a glance: Envelope vs. emotional feedback in animated conversational agents. Applied Artificial intelligence, 13.
  6. Cottrell , N.B. ( 1972 ). Social Facilitation . in C.G. McClintock (Ed.), Experimental Social Psychology. New York : Holt, Rinehart, & Winston . Cottrell, N.B. (1972). Social Facilitation. in C.G. McClintock (Ed.), Experimental Social Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
  7. 10.1037/h0025902 · DOI · Paper page
  8. 10.1037/h0048942 · DOI · Paper page
  9. 10.1006/ijhc.1996.0104 · DOI · Paper page
  10. Isbister , C. & Layton , Y. ( 1995 ). In J. Nielsen (Ed.), Advances in Human-Computer Interaction , Volume 5 . Norwood, NJ : Ablex Publishing Corporation . Isbister, C. & Layton, Y. (1995). In J. Nielsen (Ed.), Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 5. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
  11. Isbister , C. & Nass , C.I. ( 1998 ). Personality in conversational characters: Building better digital interaction partners using knowledge about human personality preferences and perceptions . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Isbister, C. & Nass, C.I. (1998). Personality in conversational characters: Building better digital interaction partners using knowledge about human personality preferences and perceptions. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  12. Lang , P.J. ( 1995 ). The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention. American Psychologist, 50(5) . Lang, P.J. (1995). The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention. American Psychologist, 50(5).
  13. Laurel , B. (Ed.). ( 1990 ). The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design . Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley . Laurel, B. (Ed.). (1990). The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  14. Lee , E-J. & Nass , C.I. ( 1998 ). Does the ethnicity of a computer agent matter? An experimental comparison of human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Lee, E-J. & Nass, C.I. (1998). Does the ethnicity of a computer agent matter? An experimental comparison of human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  15. Lefcourt , H.M. ( 1966 ). Internal versus extemal control of reinforcement: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 65(4) . ,, Lefcourt, H.M. (1966). Internal versus extemal control of reinforcement: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 65(4). ,,
  16. Lester , J. , Towns , S. , Callaway , C. , & FitzGerald , P. ( 1998 ). Deictic and emotive communication in animated pedagogical agents . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Lester, J., Towns, S., Callaway, C., & FitzGerald, P. (1998). Deictic and emotive communication in animated pedagogical agents. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  17. Martin , S.A. & Knight , J.M. ( 1986 ). Social facilitation effects resulting from locus of control using humans and computer experimenters. Computers in Human Behavior, 1 . Martin, S.A. & Knight, J.M. (1986). Social facilitation effects resulting from locus of control using humans and computer experimenters. Computers in Human Behavior, 1.
  18. Massaro , D.W. ( 1998 ). Perceiving Talking Faces: From Speech Perception to a Behavioral Principle . Cambridge, MA : MIT Press . Massaro, D.W. (1998). Perceiving Talking Faces: From Speech Perception to a Behavioral Principle. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  19. Nass , C. & Gong , L. (in press). Maximized modality or constrained consistency? Proceedings of the AVSP 99 Conference , Santa Cruz, CA. Nass, C. & Gong, L. (in press). Maximized modality or constrained consistency? Proceedings of the AVSP 99 Conference, Santa Cruz, CA.
  20. Nass , C.I. , Moon , Y. , Morkes , J. , Kim , E-Y. , & Fogg , B.J. ( 1997 ). Computers are social actors: A review of current research . In B. Friedman (Ed.), Human Values and the Design of Computer Technology. Stanford, CA : CSLI Publications . Nass, C.I., Moon, Y., Morkes, J., Kim, E-Y., & Fogg, B.J. (1997). Computers are social actors: A review of current research. In B. Friedman (Ed.), Human Values and the Design of Computer Technology. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
  21. 10.1006/ijhc.1996.0073 · DOI · Paper page
  22. 10.1006/ijhc.1995.1042 · DOI · Paper page
  23. 10.1037/h0034390 · DOI
  24. Reeves , B. & Nass , C. ( 1996 ). The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places . Stanford, CA : CSLI Publications . Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
  25. Rotter , J.B. ( 1966 ). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external locus of control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied 80(1) . Rotter, J.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external locus of control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied 80(1).
  26. Spielberger , C.D. , Gorsuch , R.L. , & Lushene , R.E. ( 1970 ). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory . Consulting Psychologists Press , Palo Alto CA . Spielberger, C.D., Gorsuch, R.L., & Lushene, R.E. (1970). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto CA.
  27. 10.1080/00224545.1965.9919655 · DOI · Paper page
  28. Taylor , I.C. , McInnes , F.R. , Love , S. , Foster , J.C. , & Mervyn , J. ( 1998 ). Providing animated characters with designated personality profiles . Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters. Taylor, I.C., McInnes, F.R., Love, S., Foster, J.C., & Mervyn, J. (1998). Providing animated characters with designated personality profiles. Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Embodied Conversational Characters.
  29. Weiss , R.F. & Miller , F.G. ( 1971 ). The drive theory of social facilitation. Psychological Review, 78 . Weiss, R.F. & Miller, F.G. (1971). The drive theory of social facilitation. Psychological Review, 78.
  30. Zajonc , R.B. ( 1965 ). Social Facilitation. Science 149 . Zajonc, R.B. (1965). Social Facilitation. Science 149.

Cited by

See all 216

Metadata

Authors
Rickenberg, R., & Reeves, B.
Venue
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2000-04
Pages
49-56
DOI
10.1145/332040.332406
OpenAlex
W1987461999
Cited by
216
References
3
FWCI
34.27
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
bronze
Licence
www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy#Background (vor)

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: The effects of animated characters on anxiety, task performance, and evaluations of user interfaces. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1145/332040.332406
The paper
Rickenberg, R., & Reeves, B. (2000). The effects of animated characters on anxiety, task performance, and evaluations of user interfaces. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/332040.332406

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.