"She talks to me as if she were alive" Assessing the social reactions and perceptions of children toward voice assistants and their appraisal of the appropriateness of these reactions

It has long been observed that people treat technical entities like computers as social actors. Numerous studies have been conducted on media equation theory, which describes users' social reactions toward devices to be unconscious. These users consider this inappropriate when thought about consciously. However, both long-term trends as well as the reactions of children have been neglected - although children might indeed differ in their reactions, as they are especially prone to the tendency to humanize and anthropomorphize. This study examined the social behavior of 20 children aged six to twelve toward a voice assistant during a five-week field study. In the course of three sessions, interviews were conducted to assess the children's tendency to socially react to the devices and to what extent they perceive such reactions as appropriate. Additionally, the tendency to anthropomorphize was assessed together with qualitative data to gain insight into cues that would trigger anthropomorphization. Results indicate that age and duration have an effect on the tendency to anthropomorphize. However, age and duration have only a partial effect on social reactions and the evaluation of their appropriateness. Furthermore, natural speech appeared to be a rather strong cue in triggering tendencies to anthropomorphize in the children.