Can you repeat that again? Investigating the mediating effects of perceived accommodation appropriateness for accommodative voice-based assistants

Abstract

The widespread use of Voice-Based Assistants (VBAs) in various applications has introduced a new dimension to human-machine communication. This study explores how users assess VBAs exhibiting either excessive or insufficient communication accommodation in imagined initial interactions. Drawing on Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) and the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), the present research investigates the mediation effect of perceived accommodation on the relationship between warmth and competence of the SCM and evaluations of the VBA as a communicator and a speaker. Participants evaluated the underaccommodative VBA significantly lower with respect to its communication and evaluations of the VBA as a speaker, which were indirectly predicted by warmth and competence stereotype content models via the perceived appropriateness of the communication. The implications of our findings and future research are discussed.