Virginia Tech
Can (S)He Close the Deal? The influence of Purchase Intention Through Gender-Assigned Artificial Intelligence
Abstract
dc:description.abstractArtificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly integrated aspect of daily life. Particularly, businesses have been incorporating AI into many of their features from customer support to product personalization. While there has been a body of research exploring the interpersonal impacts of AI and human participants, there is limited research on the effects of human-like AI on its influence in the purchasing process. Taking the theoretical framework of the Computer Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm, I utilized a 2 x 3 experiment to measure if the perceived sex of an artificial intelligence impacts consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency. Participants interacted with either a male-gendered or female-gendered AI chatbot, or a static website, which then recommended a water bottle based on the participants' preferences. The study indicated significance with both male and female participants preferring the control website over both AI sexes. The study also indicated significance in women participants feeling more overall agency than men participants during the experiment. The results indicate a potential need for a new level of human realism before CASA can be framed within some AI applications.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- MACOM
- Level thesis:degree_level
- masters
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Communication
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Communication
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2023
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Cole, Jared Lee
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Horning, Michael A.
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Holz, Adrienne
- Tedesco, John C.
Subjects
dc:subject × 6Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
- Language dc:language.iso
- en
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- vt_gsexam:38247
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115945