Developing a Scale for Measuring the Believability of Virtual Agents

Abstract

Creating believable virtual agents has long been the focus of artists and scientists. A believable agent enables the audience to be emotionally involved in a narrative, willingly suspending their disbelief for the pleasure of appreciating literacy, drama, film, etc. In the past few decades, believability has become the goal of virtual reality developers and researchers. In the realm of virtual reality, it is commonly accepted that a believable virtual agent should have personality, emotion, agency, intelligence, and more. Despite its seemingly complicated requirements, believability is a fragile product that can be easily jeopardized by missing one or more of these elements. In this paper, we review the questionnaires that past researchers have used on the topic of virtual agents' believability. Based on the prevailing questions identified in the relevant studies, we propose a scale-aiming at standardizing one-for measuring the believability of virtual agents. We recommend that future research involving virtual agents refer to this scale to evaluate the level of their believability.