Semantic Technology and Anthropomorphism: Exploring the Impacts of Voice Assistant Personality on User Trust, Perceived Risk, and Attitude

A long-standing debate exists on whether robots need personality. With voice assistants (VAs) (i.e., Google Assistant and Apple's Siri) as the research context, this study employed the stimulus-organismresponse (SOR) model and the theory of reasoned action to investigate how the personalities that VAs display (i.e., humanlike traits and behavior traits) influence perceived risk, perceived enjoyment, trust, attitude to use, and continued usage intention. The results show that when VAs have more humanlike linguistic traits, such as tone and phrasing, and more positive behavior traits, such as politeness and helpfulness, users enjoy using VAs more, have more trust in VAs, and display a greater willingness to continue using VAs. Unlike past studies focusing on technical aspects, the results of this study provide decision-makers with a new perspective, showing that using more humanlike designs and giving VAs unique personalities can build user trust and increase willingness to use VAs.