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Human-Machine Communication

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Autonomy And Agency In Farming: Exploring Human, Machine, And Animal Dynamics, Ricarda Drüeke, Corinna Peil Nov 2024

Autonomy And Agency In Farming: Exploring Human, Machine, And Animal Dynamics, Ricarda Drüeke, Corinna Peil

Human-Machine Communication

Human-Machine Communication is reshaping the agricultural sector as digital technologies and automated systems transform farms into complex communicative environments. Farms, which serve as both workplaces and living spaces, uniquely integrate these technologies, yet their impact on farmers’ daily practices, labor, and decision-making remains underexplored. Through an ethnographic approach involving qualitative interviews and farm visits in Austria and southern Germany, the study investigates the interactions among farmers, automated technologies, smart devices, and animals. Using Actor-Network Theory, the redistribution of labor and agency in smart farming is explored. This analysis examines two forms of human-machine relations: the dynamics of automation and autonomy …


What Hmc Teaches Us About Authenticity, Katrin Etzrodt, Jihyun Kim, Margot Van Der Goot, Andrew Prahl, Mina Choi, Matthew Craig, Marco Dehnert, Sven Engesser, Katharina Frehmann, Luis A. Grande, Jindong Liu, Diyi Liu, Sandra Mooshammer, Nathan Rambukkana, Ayanda Rogge, Pieta Sikström, Rachel Son, Nan J. Wilkenfeld, Kun Xu, Renwen Zhang, Ying Zhu, Chad Edwards Jun 2024

What Hmc Teaches Us About Authenticity, Katrin Etzrodt, Jihyun Kim, Margot Van Der Goot, Andrew Prahl, Mina Choi, Matthew Craig, Marco Dehnert, Sven Engesser, Katharina Frehmann, Luis A. Grande, Jindong Liu, Diyi Liu, Sandra Mooshammer, Nathan Rambukkana, Ayanda Rogge, Pieta Sikström, Rachel Son, Nan J. Wilkenfeld, Kun Xu, Renwen Zhang, Ying Zhu, Chad Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

This paper delves into what the application of authenticity to Human-Machine Communication (HMC) can teach us about authenticity and us as HMC researchers and as a com- munity. Inspired by the 2023 pre-conference “HMC: Authenticity in communicating with machines,” two central questions guide the discussion: How does HMC contribute to our understanding of authentic communication with machines? And how can the concept of authenticity contribute to our sense of self as researchers within the HMC field? Through the collaborative effort of 22 authors, the paper explores the re-conceptualization of authenticity and presents recent areas of tension that guide the HMC …


Authentic Impediments: The Influence Of Identity Threat, Cultivated Perceptions, And Personality On Robophobia, Kate K. Mays Jun 2024

Authentic Impediments: The Influence Of Identity Threat, Cultivated Perceptions, And Personality On Robophobia, Kate K. Mays

Human-Machine Communication

Considering possible impediments to authentic interactions with machines, this study explores contributors to robophobia from the potential dual influence of technological features and individual traits. Through a 2 x 2 x 3 online experiment, a robot’s physical human-likeness, gender, and status were manipulated and individual differences in robot beliefs and personality traits were measured. The effects of robot traits on phobia were non-significant. Overall, subjective beliefs about what robots are, cultivated by media portrayals, whether they threaten human identity, are moral, and have agency were the strongest predictors of robophobia. Those with higher internal locus of control and neuroticism, and …


What’S In A Name And/Or A Frame? Ontological Framing And Naming Of Social Actors And Social Responses, David Westerman, Michael Vosburg, Xinyue Liu, Patric R. Spence Jun 2024

What’S In A Name And/Or A Frame? Ontological Framing And Naming Of Social Actors And Social Responses, David Westerman, Michael Vosburg, Xinyue Liu, Patric R. Spence

Human-Machine Communication

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally a communication field. Thus, the study of how AI interacts with us is likely to be heavily driven by communication. The current study examined two things that may impact people’s perceptions of socialness of a social actor: one nonverbal (ontological frame) and one verbal (providing a name) with a 2 (human vs. robot) x 2 (named or not) experiment. Participants saw one of four videos of a study “host” crossing these conditions and responded to various perceptual measures about the socialness and task ability of that host. Overall, data were consistent with hypotheses that whether …


In Seal We Trust? Investigating The Effect Of Certifications On Perceived Trustworthiness Of Ai Systems, Magdalena Wischnewski, Nicole Krämer, Christian Janiesch, Emmanuel Müller, Theodor Schnitzler, Carina Newen Jun 2024

In Seal We Trust? Investigating The Effect Of Certifications On Perceived Trustworthiness Of Ai Systems, Magdalena Wischnewski, Nicole Krämer, Christian Janiesch, Emmanuel Müller, Theodor Schnitzler, Carina Newen

Human-Machine Communication

Trust certification through so-called trust seals is a common strategy to help users ascertain the trustworthiness of a system. In this study, we examined trust seals for AI systems from two perspectives: (1) In a pre-registered online study participants, we asked whether trust seals can increase user trust in AI systems, and (2) qualitatively, we investigated what participants expect from such AI seals of trust. Our results indicate mixed support for the use of AI seals. While trust seals generally did not affect the participants’ trust, their trust in the AI system increased if they trusted the seal-issuing institution. Moreover, …


Doctor Who?: Norms, Care, And Autonomy In The Attitudes Of Medical Students Towards Ai Pre And Post Chatgpt, Andrew Prahl, Kevin Tong Weng Jin Jun 2024

Doctor Who?: Norms, Care, And Autonomy In The Attitudes Of Medical Students Towards Ai Pre And Post Chatgpt, Andrew Prahl, Kevin Tong Weng Jin

Human-Machine Communication

This study adopts the combined TAM-TPB model to investigate attitudes and expectations of machines at a pre-career stage. We study how future doctors (medical students) expect to interact with future AI machinery, what AI usage norms will develop, and beliefs about human and machine autonomy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Wave one occurred six-months prior to the public release of ChatGPT; wave two occurred in the 6 months following. Three themes emerged: AI is tomorrow, wishing for the AI ouvrier, and human contrasts. Two differences were noted pre- versus post-ChatGPT: (1) participants began to view machinery instead of themselves as the …


External And Internal Attribution In Human-Agent Interaction: Insights From Neuroscience And Virtual Reality, Nina Lauharatanahirun, Andrea Won, Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang Jun 2024

External And Internal Attribution In Human-Agent Interaction: Insights From Neuroscience And Virtual Reality, Nina Lauharatanahirun, Andrea Won, Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang

Human-Machine Communication

Agents are designed in the image of humans, both internally and externally. The internal systems of agents imitate the human brain, both at the levels of hardware (i.e., neuromorphic computing) and software (i.e., neural networks). Furthermore, the external appearance and behaviors of agents are designed by people and based on human data. Sometimes, these humanlike qualities of agents are purposely selected to increase their social influence over human users, and sometimes the human factors that influence perceptions of agents are hidden. Inspired by Blascovich’s “threshold of social influence’, a model designed to explain the effects of different methods of anthropomorphizing …


The Impact Of Human-Ai Relationship Perception On Voice Shopping Intentions, Marisa Tschopp, Kai Sassenberg Jun 2024

The Impact Of Human-Ai Relationship Perception On Voice Shopping Intentions, Marisa Tschopp, Kai Sassenberg

Human-Machine Communication

In the emerging field of voice shopping with quasi-sales agents like Amazon's Alexa, we investigated the influence of perceived human-AI relationships (i.e., authority ranking, market pricing, peer bonding) on (voice-)shopping intentions. In our cross-sectional survey among experienced voice shoppers, we tested hypotheses specifically differentiating voice shopping for low- and high-involvement products. The results emphasized the importance of socio-emotional elements (i.e., peer bonding) for voice shopping for high-involvement products. While calculative decision-making (i.e., market pricing) was less relevant, the master-servant relationship perception (i.e., authority ranking) was important in low-involvement shopping. An exploratory analysis of users’ desired benefits of voice shopping reinforces …


Chatbot Vs. Human: The Impact Of Responsive Conversational Features On Users’ Responses To Chat Advisors, Stefanie H. Klein, Sonja Utz Jun 2024

Chatbot Vs. Human: The Impact Of Responsive Conversational Features On Users’ Responses To Chat Advisors, Stefanie H. Klein, Sonja Utz

Human-Machine Communication

As educational organizations increasingly consider supporting or replacing human chat advisors with chatbots, it is crucial to examine if users perceive a chatbot differently from a human. Chatbots’ conversational features may signal responsiveness and thus improve user responses. To explore this, we conducted three online experiments using a study advising setting. We computed pooled data analyses because the individual study results did not provide clear support for our hypotheses. Results indicate that users prefer human agents regarding competence and intention to use but not perceived enjoyment. Responsiveness increased likability, warmth, and satisfaction. Perceptions of the interaction mediated the responsiveness effects. …


Communication Style Adaptation In Human-Computer Interaction: An Empirical Study On The Effects Of A Voice Assistant’S Politeness And Machine-Likeness On People’S Communication Behavior During And After The Interacting, Aike C. Horstmann, Clara Strathmann, Lea Lambrich, Nicole Krämer Jun 2024

Communication Style Adaptation In Human-Computer Interaction: An Empirical Study On The Effects Of A Voice Assistant’S Politeness And Machine-Likeness On People’S Communication Behavior During And After The Interacting, Aike C. Horstmann, Clara Strathmann, Lea Lambrich, Nicole Krämer

Human-Machine Communication

Humans adapt their communication style when interacting with one another. With interactive technologies such as voice assistants taking over the role of an interaction partner, the question arises whether and to what extent humans also adapt to their communication style. The adaptation could have a grounding function, ensuring efficient communication with the current interaction partner, or be based on priming which could endure and influence subsequent interactions. In a pre-registered experimental lab study, 133 participants interacted with a voice assistant whose communication style varied regarding politeness (polite vs. non-polite) and machine-likeness (machine-like vs. natural). Participants’ verbal behavior during and in …


Feminist Cybernetic, Critical Race, Postcolonial, And Crip Propositions For The Theoretical Future Of Human-Machine Communication, Paula M. Gardner, Jess Rauchberg Jun 2024

Feminist Cybernetic, Critical Race, Postcolonial, And Crip Propositions For The Theoretical Future Of Human-Machine Communication, Paula M. Gardner, Jess Rauchberg

Human-Machine Communication

The authors review theoretical trends in HMC research, as well as recent critical interventions in the HMC journal that usefully reshape and expand our research terrain. Conventional research such as positivist and quantified approaches are identified as restraining research questions and delimiting understandings of concepts including subjects, agency and interactivity. Feminist cybernetic, critical race, postcolonial and crip theoretical approaches are offered, examining how they fill research gaps in HMC, expanding content areas explored, and addressing diverse intersectional pressures, situated, and time/space dynamics that impact human machine interaction. The authors suggest these shifts are essential to expanding HMC research to address …


Machine Ex Machina: A Framework Decentering The Human In Ai Design Praxis, Cait Lackey, Zizi Papacharissi Jun 2024

Machine Ex Machina: A Framework Decentering The Human In Ai Design Praxis, Cait Lackey, Zizi Papacharissi

Human-Machine Communication

Artificial intelligence (AI) design typically incorporates intelligence in a manner that is affirmatory of the superiority of human forms of intelligence. In this paper, we draw from relevant research and theory to propose a social-ecological design praxis of machine inclusivity that rejects the presumption of primacy afforded to human-centered AI. We provide new perspectives for how human-machine communication (HMC) scholarship can be synergistically combined with modern neuroscience’s integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness. We propose an integrated theoretical framework with five design practice recommendations to guide how we might think about responsible and conscious AI environments of the future: symbiotic …


Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 7 Special Issue: Mediatization Apr 2024

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 7 Special Issue: Mediatization

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 7. Special Issue on Mediatization


Artificial Sociality, Simone Natale, Iliana Depounti Apr 2024

Artificial Sociality, Simone Natale, Iliana Depounti

Human-Machine Communication

This article proposes the notion of Artificial Sociality to describe communicative AI technologies that create the impression of social behavior. Existing tools that activate Artificial Sociality include, among others, Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, voice assistants, virtual influencers, socialbots and companion chatbots such as Replika. The article highlights three key issues that are likely to shape present and future debates about these technologies, as well as design practices and regulation efforts: the modelling of human sociality that foregrounds it, the problem of deception and the issue of control from the part of the users. Ethical, social and cultural …


The Perturbing Mediatization Of Voice-Based Virtual Assistants: The Case Of Alexa, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards, Chad Edwards Apr 2024

The Perturbing Mediatization Of Voice-Based Virtual Assistants: The Case Of Alexa, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards, Chad Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

This study examines the role of voice-based assistants (VBAs), specifically Alexa, in the mediatization paradigm framework. The authors hypothesize that emerging technologies such as chatbots and VBAs intensify the process of online meta-reintermediation of news. Three research questions were investigated through a questionnaire administered to 655 university students in the US and Italy: Do participants try to get news from Alexa? Are participants aware that VBAs represent a case of meta-reintermediation of news? Does Alexa contribute to the potential hybridization of news, information, and knowledge? The analysis of 451 open-ended answers showed that only a fraction of participants searches for …


Communicative Ai And Techno-Semiotic Mediatization: Understanding The Communicative Role Of The Machine, Göran Bolin Apr 2024

Communicative Ai And Techno-Semiotic Mediatization: Understanding The Communicative Role Of The Machine, Göran Bolin

Human-Machine Communication

Mediatization discourse has so far mainly been centered on media from institutional or social-constructionist approaches. The technological developments within communications industries coupled with the wider societal process of datafication might, however, beg for dusting off the smaller, although the long-time existing, technological approach to mediatization as a complement to the two other approaches, in order to understand aspects of automation and human-machine communication. This theoretical article explores how existing mediatization approaches can refocus to include lessons learned from human-machine communication. The first section accounts for the main mediatization approaches. The second section discusses debates on communication, artificiality, and meaning-making. The …


A New Family Member Or Just Another Digital Interface? Smart Speakers In The Lives Of Families With Young Children, Giovanna Mascheroni Apr 2024

A New Family Member Or Just Another Digital Interface? Smart Speakers In The Lives Of Families With Young Children, Giovanna Mascheroni

Human-Machine Communication

Based on longitudinal qualitative research involving twenty families with at least one child aged eight or younger, the article provides an account of how families, as distinctive communicative figurations, adopt, use and make sense of smart speakers through diverse socially situated practices. Findings show that parents and children enter in a communicative relationship with smart speakers based on their attribution of human-like or machine-like traits to the device, and the device response to their expectations. Moreover, engaging in communicative practices through and with smart speakers, family members subvert or reinforce existing power relations. However, smart speakers acquire new agency by …


Smoothing Out Smart Tech’S Rough Edges: Imperfect Automation And The Human Fix, Christian Katzenbach, Christian Pentzold, Paloma Viejo Otero Apr 2024

Smoothing Out Smart Tech’S Rough Edges: Imperfect Automation And The Human Fix, Christian Katzenbach, Christian Pentzold, Paloma Viejo Otero

Human-Machine Communication

In this article, we take issue with an idea of autonomous and efficient automation that is upheld through the paradoxical conjunction of a flawed vision of the technological fix and the under-acknowledged human work required to fill in the gaps between machines and users. Our argument is based on two case studies that sit at opposite tails of automation processes: the front end of self-service checkouts and the back end of content moderation. This juxtaposition allows us to surface three themes on how the hype around automation is enabled by human interventions: the ad-hoc sociality in situated practices of automation, …


Who Is (Communicatively More) Responsible Behind The Wheel? Applying The Theory Of Communicative Responsibility To Tam In The Context Of Using Navigation Technology, Sungbin Youk, Hee Sun Park Jul 2023

Who Is (Communicatively More) Responsible Behind The Wheel? Applying The Theory Of Communicative Responsibility To Tam In The Context Of Using Navigation Technology, Sungbin Youk, Hee Sun Park

Human-Machine Communication

By examining how perceived usefulness and ease of use relate to the user’s perception (i.e., communicative responsibility), the communicative behavior of the navigation system (i.e., the landmarks used to give directions), and the context of driving (i.e., familiarity of the driving location), this study applies the theory of communicative responsibility to the technology acceptance model to better understand why users are more likely to adopt certain navigation technologies while driving. We hypothesized that users’ perceived symmetry in communicative responsibility independently and interactively (with communicative behavior of the navigation system and the driving situation) affects perceived ease of use and usefulness …


Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 6 Jul 2023

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 6

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 6.


Boundary Regulation Processes And Privacy Concerns With (Non-)Use Of Voice-Based Assistants, Jessica Vitak, Priya C. Kumar, Yuting Liao, Michael Zimmer Jul 2023

Boundary Regulation Processes And Privacy Concerns With (Non-)Use Of Voice-Based Assistants, Jessica Vitak, Priya C. Kumar, Yuting Liao, Michael Zimmer

Human-Machine Communication

An exemplar of human-machine communication, voice-based assistants (VBAs) embedded in smartphones and smart speakers simplify everyday tasks while collecting significant data about users and their environment. In recent years, devices using VBAs have continued to add new features and collect more data—in potentially invasive ways. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a guiding framework, we analyze data from 11 focus groups with 65 US adult VBA users and nonusers. Findings highlight differences in attitudes and concerns toward VBAs broadly and provide insights into how attitudes are influenced by device features. We conclude with considerations for how to address boundary regulation …


Valenced Media Effects On Robot-Related Attitudes And Mental Models: A Parasocial Contact Approach, Jan-Philipp Stein, Jaime Banks Jul 2023

Valenced Media Effects On Robot-Related Attitudes And Mental Models: A Parasocial Contact Approach, Jan-Philipp Stein, Jaime Banks

Human-Machine Communication

Despite rapid advancements in robotics, most people still only come into contact with robots via mass media. Consequently, robot-related attitudes are often discussed as the result of habituation and cultivation processes, as they unfold during repeated media exposure. In this paper, we introduce parasocial contact theory to this line of research— arguing that it better acknowledges interpersonal and intergroup dynamics found in modern human–robot interactions. Moreover, conceptualizing mediated robot encounters as parasocial contact integrates both qualitative and quantitative aspects into one comprehensive approach. A multi-method experiment offers empirical support for our arguments: Although many elements of participants’ beliefs and attitudes …


Triggered By Socialbots: Communicative Anthropomorphization Of Bots In Online Conversations, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Kaisa Laitinen, Minna Koivula, Tanja Sihvonen Jul 2023

Triggered By Socialbots: Communicative Anthropomorphization Of Bots In Online Conversations, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Kaisa Laitinen, Minna Koivula, Tanja Sihvonen

Human-Machine Communication

This article examines communicative anthropomorphization, that is, assigning of humanlike features, of socialbots in communication between humans and bots. Situated in the field of human-machine communication, the article asks how socialbots are devised as anthropomorphized communication companions and explores the ways in which human users anthropomorphize bots through communication. Through an analysis of two datasets of bots interacting with humans on social media, we find that bots are communicatively anthropomorphized by directly addressing them, assigning agency to them, drawing parallels between humans and bots, and assigning emotions and opinions to bots. We suggest that socialbots inherently have anthropomorphized characteristics and …


Human-Ai Teaming During An Ongoing Disaster: How Scripts Around Training And Feedback Reveal This Is A Form Of Human-Machine Communication, Keri K. Stephens, Anastazja G. Harris, Amanda L. Hughes, Carolyn E. Montagnolo, Karim Nader, S. Ashley Stevens, Tara Tasuji, Yifan Xu, Hemant Purohit, Christopher W. Zobel Jul 2023

Human-Ai Teaming During An Ongoing Disaster: How Scripts Around Training And Feedback Reveal This Is A Form Of Human-Machine Communication, Keri K. Stephens, Anastazja G. Harris, Amanda L. Hughes, Carolyn E. Montagnolo, Karim Nader, S. Ashley Stevens, Tara Tasuji, Yifan Xu, Hemant Purohit, Christopher W. Zobel

Human-Machine Communication

Humans play an integral role in identifying important information from social media during disasters. While human annotation of social media data to train machine learning models is often viewed as human-computer interaction, this study interrogates the ontological boundary between such interaction and human-machine communication. We conducted multiple interviews with participants who both labeled data to train machine learning models and corrected machine-inferred data labels. Findings reveal three themes: scripts invoked to manage decision-making, contextual scripts, and scripts around perceptions of machines. Humans use scripts around training the machine—a form of behavioral anthropomorphism—to develop social relationships with them. Correcting machine-inferred data …


An Interactional Account Of Empathy In Human-Machine Communication, Shauna Concannon, Ian Roberts, Marcus Tomalin Jul 2023

An Interactional Account Of Empathy In Human-Machine Communication, Shauna Concannon, Ian Roberts, Marcus Tomalin

Human-Machine Communication

Efforts to develop empathetic agents, or systems capable of responding appropriately to emotional content, have increased as the deployment of such systems in socially complex scenarios becomes more commonplace. In the context of human-machine communication (HMC), the ability to create the perception of empathy is achieved in large part through linguistic behavior. However, studies of how language is used to display and respond to emotion in ways deemed empathetic are limited. This article aims to address this gap, demonstrating how an interactional linguistics informed methodological approach can be applied to the study of empathy in HMC. We present an analysis …


Archipelagic Human-Machine Communication: Building Bridges Amidst Cultivated Ambiguity, Marco Dehnert Jul 2023

Archipelagic Human-Machine Communication: Building Bridges Amidst Cultivated Ambiguity, Marco Dehnert

Human-Machine Communication

In this commentary, I call for maintaining the archipelagic character of human-machine communication (HMC). Utilizing the metaphor of the archipelago or a chain of connected islands indicates that HMC entails a variety of islands differing in shape, size, location, and proximity to one another. Rather than aiming for conceptual unity and definitional homogeneity, I call for embracing a cultivated ambiguity related to HMC key concepts. Ambiguity in the sense of allowing these concepts to be flexible enough to be explored in different contexts. Cultivated in the sense of demanding resonance across individual studies and theoretical lineages to allow for cumulative …


Ivf So White, So Medical: Digital Normativity And Algorithm Bias In Infertility On Instagram, Caitlyn M. Jarvis, Margaret M. Quinlan Dec 2022

Ivf So White, So Medical: Digital Normativity And Algorithm Bias In Infertility On Instagram, Caitlyn M. Jarvis, Margaret M. Quinlan

Human-Machine Communication

Increasingly, women experiencing infertility are turning online to social media platforms, like Instagram, to engage with a support network and foster empathy. However, Instagram is also noted for its augmentation of White, cis, and heteronormative femininity through a process of silencing and minoritizing alternative, non-White voices. Through an inductive analysis of the most frequently used infertility hashtags, we collected and analyzed 252 Instagram posts to investigate how these algorithmic practices may socially construct the idealized IVF experience through communicating normative expectations. We identify predominant patterns of use that reinforce stratification within infertility treatments as primarily accessible to White women and …


The Evolution Of Gendered Software: Products, Scientific Reasoning, Criticism, And Tools, Victoria A. E. Kratel Dec 2022

The Evolution Of Gendered Software: Products, Scientific Reasoning, Criticism, And Tools, Victoria A. E. Kratel

Human-Machine Communication

Over the past 7 decades, gendered software has become globally established. In this theoretical distribution, I outline the evolution of gendered software. The journey of gendered software started with the raw idea fueled by Alan Turing’s imitation game in the 1950s. And only shortly thereafter, in the 1960s and 1970s, the first gendered software products like Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA were developed. Thus, academia took its time to not only explore technological aspects, but to further investigate the matter of gender in the 1990s CASA-paradigm (Nass et al., 1994) and Media Equation (Reeves & Nass, 1996). As these theories reasoned the …


Gender Ambiguity In Voice-Based Assistants: Gender Perception And Influences Of Context, Sandra Mooshammer, Katrin Etzrodt Dec 2022

Gender Ambiguity In Voice-Based Assistants: Gender Perception And Influences Of Context, Sandra Mooshammer, Katrin Etzrodt

Human-Machine Communication

Recently emerging synthetic acoustically gender-ambiguous voices could contribute to dissolving the still prevailing genderism. Yet, are we indeed perceiving these voices as “unassignable”? Or are we trying to assimilate them into existing genders? To investigate the perceived ambiguity, we conducted an explorative 3 (male, female, ambiguous voice) × 3 (male, female, ambiguous topic) experiment. We found that, although participants perceived the gender-ambiguous voice as ambiguous, they used a profoundly wide range of the scale, indicating tendencies toward a gender. We uncovered a mild dissolve of gender roles. Neither the listener’s gender nor the personal gender stereotypes impacted the perception. However, …


Gender And Human-Machine Communication: Where Are We?, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards Dec 2022

Gender And Human-Machine Communication: Where Are We?, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

In this introduction to the fifth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the five articles focusing on gender and human-machine communication. In this essay, we will analyze the theme of gender, including how this notion has historically and politically been set up, and for what reasons. We will start by considering gender in in-person communication, then we will progress to consider what happens to gender when it is mediated by the most important ICTs that preceded HMC: the telephone, mobile phone, and computer-mediated communication (CMC). We outline the historical framework necessary to analyze the last section …