Is Two Better than One? Effects of Multiple Agents on User Persuasion

Virtual humans need to be persuasive in order to promote behaviour change in human users. While several studies have focused on understanding the numerous aspects that influence the degree of persuasion, most of them are limited to dyadic interactions. In this paper, we present an evaluation study focused on understanding the effects of multiple agents on user's persuasion. Along with gender and status (authoritative & peer), we also look at type of focus employed by the agent i.e., user-directed where the agent aims to persuade by addressing the user directly and vicarious where the agent aims to persuade the user, who is an observer, indirectly by engaging another agent in the discussion. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 12 conditions and presented with a persuasive message by one or several virtual agents. A questionnaire was used to measure perceived interpersonal attitude, credibility and persuasion. Results indicate that credibility positively affects persuasion. In general, multiple agent setting, irrespective of the focus, was more persuasive than single agent setting. Although, participants favored user-directed setting and reported it to be persuasive and had an increased level of trust in the agents, the actual change in persuasion score reflects that vicarious setting was the most effective in inducing behaviour change. In addition to this, the study also revealed that authoritative agents were the most persuasive.