The Impacts of AI Avatar Appearance and Disclosure on User Motivation

TL;DR

The study investigates how AI avatar appearance and disclosure influence user motivation in virtual environments. Using a large-scale Roblox game with over 72,000 valid participants, it manipulates AI presence, avatar gender appearance, and disclosure of AI status, and measures motivation via time-on-task (seconds per level). Results show that interacting with an AI avatar generally reduces play intensity, masculine AI appearances further decrease intensity, and disclosing AI status increases engagement, giving results that partly reverse the authors' initial hypotheses. These findings extend social-exchange and trust perspectives to AI avatars and offer design guidance for virtual worlds aiming to balance motivation with avatar diversity and perceived agency.

Abstract

This study examines the influence of perceived AI features on user motivation in virtual interactions. AI avatars, being disclosed as being an AI, or embodying specific genders, could be used in user-AI interactions. Leveraging insights from AI and avatar research, we explore how AI disclosure and gender affect user motivation. We conducted a game-based experiment involving over 72,500 participants who solved search problems alone or with an AI companion. Different groups experienced varying AI appearances and disclosures. We measured play intensity. Results revealed that the presence of another avatar led to less intense play compared to solo play. Disclosure of the avatar as AI heightened effort intensity compared to non-disclosed AI companions. Additionally, a masculine AI appearance reduced effort intensity.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Avatar rating screen.
• Figure 2: Progress of participants in the experiment.
• Figure 3: Distribution of the time in the experiment.
• Figure 4: Mean time in experiment grouped by levels completed.
• Figure 5: Seconds spent per level grouped by treatment type.