{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115945"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115945","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Can (S)He Close the Deal? The influence of Purchase Intention Through Gender-Assigned Artificial Intelligence","abstract":"Artificial 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.","abstract_html":"Artificial 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.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cole, Jared Lee"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"MACOM","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"Communication","degree_department":"Communication","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Horning, Michael A."],"committee_members":["Holz, Adrienne","Tedesco, John C."],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-07-28","date_published":"2023-07-28","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:52Z","subjects":["artificial intelligence","customization","communication research","human–computer interaction","purchase intent","computers are social actors"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:38247"],"render_values":[{"text":"vt_gsexam:38247","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115945","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Horning, Michael A."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Holz, Adrienne","Tedesco, John C."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Communication"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cole, Jared Lee"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2023-07-29T08:00:35Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-07-29T08:00:35Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2023-07-28"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communication"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MACOM"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["artificial intelligence","customization","communication research","human–computer interaction","purchase intent","computers are social actors"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:38247"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115945"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Artificial 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."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstractgeneral","label":"General Abstract","values":["Artificial 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 concept that people naturally treat human-like technology as real humans, I have evaluated whether consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency are impacted while interacting 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 showed that both male and female participants preferred the control website over both AI sexes, and women participants overall felt more agency than men participants during the experiment. The results indicate that there may need to be a new level of human realism before users will treat some AI applications as fellow humans."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["MACOM"]},{"key":"dc:format.medium","label":"Dc Format Medium","values":["ETD"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Can (S)He Close the Deal? The influence of Purchase Intention Through Gender-Assigned Artificial Intelligence"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Horning, Michael A."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Holz, Adrienne","Tedesco, John C."],"dc:contributor.department":["Communication"],"dc:creator":["Cole, Jared Lee"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2023-07-29T08:00:35Z"],"dc:date.available":["2023-07-29T08:00:35Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2023-07-28"],"dc:description.abstract":["Artificial 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."],"dc:description.abstractgeneral":["Artificial 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 concept that people naturally treat human-like technology as real humans, I have evaluated whether consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency are impacted while interacting 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 showed that both male and female participants preferred the control website over both AI sexes, and women participants overall felt more agency than men participants during the experiment. 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