Inducing change in user's perspective with the arrangement of body orientation of embodied agents

Abstract

We set out to reveal that arrangement of embodied agents' body orientation can influence the perception of body schema and the thought of users. Embodied agents are one type of media that can socially appeal to the user's intuitive thought, especially through their body expression. We focused on embodied agents' body orientation as a means to induce the user to perceive his/her body schema inside virtual space and to accept the perceived thought of an embodied agent. A psychological experiment was conducted, since arrangement of body orientation between two people or between a user and an embodied agent often influences the social relationship between them. The result of the experiment suggested that an embodied agent whose thought was different from the user's at first and whose body orientation corresponded with the user's could trigger the user's consideration of its opinions more strongly than when this agent showed the side of its body to the user. However, difference in the perception of the body schema in virtual space by the agent's body orientation arrangement was not observed. We investigated the relation between body orientation of embodied agents and change in user's perspective, and suggested a design principle embodied agents' body orientation for enhanced association between the agent and the user