• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.15-32
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• 2022

This study seeks to clarify the mechanisms of anthropomorphism and positive user experience. This study adopts the "computers are social actors" (CASA) paradigm to verify the causal relationship between social response and anthropomorphism and correctly explicate this paradigm. The intimacy-forming and anthropomorphizing effects of deep self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships were replicated in relationships between humans and conversational agents to induce both social response and anthropomorphism. Then, the mediating effect of intimacy on the anthropomorphizing effect of deep self-disclosure was explored with psychological models that revealed the causal relationships between social connections, including intimacy and anthropomorphism. Furthermore, we explored how intimacy and anthropomorphism trigger positive user experiences. The results demonstrated that the deeper the self-disclosure depth was, the more intimate and humanly the agent was perceived and the more positive the user experience was. In addition, the effect of self-disclosure depth on anthropomorphism and positive user experience was completely mediated by intimacy. This means that when using a computer with interpersonal characteristics, people anthropomorphize it and have a positive experience because people react socially to objects with social cues. This study bridges the gap between the CASA paradigm and anthropomorphism research, suggesting the possibility of psychological explanations for the principle of human-computer interactions. In addition, it explicates the mechanism of anthropomorphism and positive user experience, emphasizing the importance of social response-that is, intimacy.