Emotional Responses to Exclusionary Behaviors in Intelligent Embodied Augmented Reality Agents

Abstract

This study investigated how interactions with intelligent agents, embodied as augmented reality (AR) avatars displaying exclusionary behaviors, affect users' emotions. Six participants engaged using voice interaction in a knowledge acquisition scenario in an AR environment with two ChatGPT-driven agents. The gaze-aware avatars, simulating realistic body language, progressively demonstrated social exclusion behaviors. Although not statistically significant, our data suggest a post-interaction emotional shift, manifested by decreased positive and negative affect-aligning with previous studies on social exclusion. Qualitative feedback revealed that some users attributed the exclusionary behavior of avatars to system glitches, leading to their disengagement. Our findings highlight challenges and opportunities for embodied intelligent agents, underscoring their potential to shape user experiences within AR, and the broader extended reality (XR) landscape.