Exploring the Interplay Between Voice, Personality, and Gender in Human-Agent Interactions

TL;DR

This study investigates how vocal cues influence perceived personality and gender in voice-only agents, revealing gender-specific perception patterns and the importance of initial impressions in human-agent interactions.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into perceived extroversion and personality synchrony in synthetic voices, highlighting gender differences and initial interaction effects.

Findings

Participants differentiated extroversion in female voices but not in male voices.

Perceived personality synchrony was more evident in initial encounters, especially with male agents.

Gender and initial impressions significantly influence perceived personality in voice agents.

Abstract

To foster effective human-agent interactions, designers must understand how vocal cues influence the perception of agent personality and the role of user-agent alignment in shaping these perceptions. In this work, we examine whether users can perceive extroversion in voice-only artificial agents and how perceived personality relates to user-agent synchrony. We conducted a study with 388 participants, who evaluated four synthetic voices derived from human recordings, varying by gender (male, female) and personality expression (introverted, extroverted). Our results show that participants were able to differentiate perceived extroversion in female agent voices, but not consistently in male voices. We also observed evidence of perceived personality synchrony, particularly in participants' evaluations of the first agent encountered, with this effect more pronounced among male participants and toward male agents. We discuss these findings in light of limitations in stimulus diversity and voice representation, and outline implications for the design of voice-based agents, particularly regarding the interaction between gender, personality perception, and initial user impressions. This paper contributes findings and insights to consider the interplay of user-agent personality and gender synchrony in the design of human-agent interactions.