The influence of virtual representatives on recommender system evaluation

Virtual representatives are increasingly used in recommender systems to guide users and add conversational aspects. However, the impacts of virtual representatives on users’ evaluations of the recommender system have not been investigated. This study specifically examined the influence of virtual representatives’ anthropomorphism cues on system users’ perceptions of system credibility and liking. The results revealed that system users’ perceptions of the virtual representative’s credibility have a significant influence on users’ perceived credibility and liking of the system. Also, the human-like appearance of a virtual representative significantly influences users’ perceived attractiveness of the virtual representative, while voice outputs from the representative were found to have a significant influence on users’ liking of the recommender system.