Building Trust Through Voice: How Vocal Tone Impacts User Perception of Attractiveness of Voice Assistants
This research addresses user trust issues in voice assistants for complex activities, but it is incremental as it builds on existing knowledge about vocal characteristics.
The study tackled the problem of user hesitancy in using voice assistants for complex tasks by investigating how vocal tone affects perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness, finding that positive or neutral tones significantly increase both attributes.
Voice Assistants (VAs) are popular for simple tasks, but users are often hesitant to use them for complex activities like online shopping. We explored whether the vocal characteristics like the VA's vocal tone, can make VAs perceived as more attractive and trustworthy to users for complex tasks. Our findings show that the tone of the VA voice significantly impacts its perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. Participants in our experiment were more likely to be attracted to VAs with positive or neutral tones and ultimately trusted the VAs they found more attractive. We conclude that VA's perceived trustworthiness can be enhanced through thoughtful voice design, incorporating a variety of vocal tones.