Consistency of personality in interactive characters: verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and user characteristics

This study examined whether people would interpret and respond to verbal (text) and non-verbal cues (posture) of personality in interactive characters just as they interpret cues from a person. In a balanced, between-subjects experiment (N = 40), introverted and extroverted participants were randomly paired with one of two types of consistent computer characters: (1) matched participants' personality with both verbal and nonverbal cues or (2) completely mismatched the participant, or one of two types of inconsistent characters: (3) matched with verbal cues but not with non-verbal cues or (4) matched with non-verbal but not with verbal cues. Participants accurately identified the character's personality type in their assessment of its verbal and non-verbal cues. Preference was for consistent characters, regardless of participant personality. Consistent characters also had greater influence over peoples' behavior-interaction with consistent characters led to greater changes in people's answers than interaction with inconsistent characters. Finally, contrary to previous research, participants tended to prefer a character whose personality was complementary, rather than similar, with their own. This study demonstrates the importance of orchestrating the overall set of cues that an interactive computer character presents to the computer user, and emphasizes the need for consistency among these cues. (C) 2000 Academic Press.