Can Social Agents elicit Shame as Humans do?

Abstract

This paper presents a study that examines whether social agents can elicit the social emotion shame as humans do. For that, we use job interviews, which are highly evaluative situations per se. We vary the interview style (shame-eliciting vs. neutral) and the job interviewer (human vs. social agent). Our dependent variables include observational data regarding the social signals of shame and shame regulation as well as self-assessment questionnaires regarding the felt uneasiness and discomfort in the situation. Our results indicate that social agents can elicit shame to the same amount as humans. This gives insights about the impact of social agents on users and the emotional connection between them.