Conference Agenda

Delivering bad news, such as a rejection, can be very difficult for both the deliverer and the recipient. In particular, the bearer is at risk of being blamed by the recipient. However, what happens when the deliverer of bad news is a conversational agent (CA)? Moreover, how does a humanlike CA design influence influence the user's attribution of blame? We conducted an online experiment with 101 participants to investigate how perceived humanness in CAs that deliver bad news influences the user's attribution of blame. Our results indicate that perceived humanness has contradictory effects on the attribution of blame, increasing and decreasing it simultaneously. Based on our findings, we suggest that designers of CAs that deliver bad news should be very concerned with humanlike design, as their well-intentioned design choices can have unintended consequences.

In today’s video gaming landscape, loot boxes are a common feature that allows gamers to enhance their gaming experience with special items or char- acters. By purchasing loot boxes, gamers can receive advantages in the game, through items that have objectively better properties. This study explores the mechanisms behind the loot box purchase intention in multiplayer games by con- ceptualizing a framework based on the social fear of missing out and factors from the Protection-Motivation Theory. Data collected from 205 gamers of multi- player games was analyzed using ordinary least squares multiple regression . The findings reveal that social fear of missing out and protection motivation contrib- ute to gamers’ intentions to purchase loot boxes. These results highlight the va- lidity of concerns regarding loot boxes, as social and individual, game-related factors can influence purchase behavior, warranting further investigation.