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Building Trust Through Voice: How Vocal Tone Impacts User Perception of Attractiveness of Voice Assistants

Sabid Bin Habib Pias, Alicia Freel, Ran Huang, Donald Williamson, Minjeong Kim, Apu Kapadia

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether vocal tone influences the perceived attractiveness and subsequent trustworthiness of voice assistants during complex tasks. Using a stimulus set that varies tone, gender, and age in a factorial design, the study shows that positive and neutral tones increase attractiveness, and this attractiveness mediates trust in the VA. Gender and age of the voice show no significant direct effects on trust, though negative tones generally reduce attractiveness and trust. The findings imply that thoughtful, diverse vocal tone design can enhance VA adoption and engagement for complex tasks, while emphasizing ethical use to avoid manipulation and ensure reliability.

Abstract

Voice Assistants (VAs) are popular for simple tasks, but users are often hesitant to use them for complex activities like online shopping. We explored whether the vocal characteristics like the VA's vocal tone, can make VAs perceived as more attractive and trustworthy to users for complex tasks. Our findings show that the tone of the VA voice significantly impacts its perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. Participants in our experiment were more likely to be attracted to VAs with positive or neutral tones and ultimately trusted the VAs they found more attractive. We conclude that VA's perceived trustworthiness can be enhanced through thoughtful voice design, incorporating a variety of vocal tones.

Building Trust Through Voice: How Vocal Tone Impacts User Perception of Attractiveness of Voice Assistants

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether vocal tone influences the perceived attractiveness and subsequent trustworthiness of voice assistants during complex tasks. Using a stimulus set that varies tone, gender, and age in a factorial design, the study shows that positive and neutral tones increase attractiveness, and this attractiveness mediates trust in the VA. Gender and age of the voice show no significant direct effects on trust, though negative tones generally reduce attractiveness and trust. The findings imply that thoughtful, diverse vocal tone design can enhance VA adoption and engagement for complex tasks, while emphasizing ethical use to avoid manipulation and ensure reliability.

Abstract

Voice Assistants (VAs) are popular for simple tasks, but users are often hesitant to use them for complex activities like online shopping. We explored whether the vocal characteristics like the VA's vocal tone, can make VAs perceived as more attractive and trustworthy to users for complex tasks. Our findings show that the tone of the VA voice significantly impacts its perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. Participants in our experiment were more likely to be attracted to VAs with positive or neutral tones and ultimately trusted the VAs they found more attractive. We conclude that VA's perceived trustworthiness can be enhanced through thoughtful voice design, incorporating a variety of vocal tones.
Paper Structure (9 sections, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 9 sections, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction and Related Work
  2. Methodology
  3. Results
  4. Effect of Vocal Tones
  5. Reasons for Voice Preference
  6. Discussion and Future Work
  7. Limitation
  8. Conclusion
  9. Appendix

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Path model diagram for the mediation of voice attractiveness in the relationship between VA trustworthiness and the tone, and review valence of the VA voice. (* = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.001). Baselines for emotion=neutral
  • Figure 2: Differences in the perceived attractiveness of voice in terms of vocal tones (estimated marginal means)
  • Figure 3: Indirect effect of VA tone, age, and gender in the proposed mediation model (* = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.001)