Measuring Subconscious Gender Biases against Male and Female Virtual Agents in Japan

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether Japanese participants have subconscious gender biases against a male and a female virtual agents and quantify those biases if any. The participants were given a negative feedback after taking a logical thinking test regardless of their performance by the virtual agents. Then we measured their subconscious gender biases with IAT. The preliminary results indicated the participants showed general gender biases against the male agent. On the other hand, stereotypical gender biases strongly appeared against the female agent. These results provide implications for more gender-neutral agent design in applications where they might give negative feedbacks such as education and training.