The Impact of Perceived Tone, Age, and Gender on Voice Assistant Persuasiveness in the Context of Product Recommendations

Voice Assistants (VAs) can assist users in various everyday tasks, but manyusers are reluctant to rely on VAs for intricate tasks like online shopping.This study aims to examine whether the vocal characteristics of VAs can serveas an effective tool to persuade users and increase user engagement with VAs inonline shopping. Prior studies have demonstrated that the perceived tone, age,and gender of a voice influence the perceived persuasiveness of the speaker ininterpersonal interactions. Furthermore, persuasion in product communicationhas been shown to affect purchase decisions in online shopping. We investigatewhether variations in a VA voice's perceived tone, age, and gendercharacteristics can persuade users, and ultimately affect their purchasedecisions. Our experimental study showed that participants were more persuadedto make purchase decisions by VA voices having positive or neutral tones aswell as middle-aged male or younger female voices. Our results suggest that VAdesigners should offer users the ability to easily customize VA voices with arange of tones, ages, and genders. This customization can enhance user comfortand enjoyment, potentially leading to higher engagement with VAs. Additionally,we discuss the boundaries of ethical persuasion, emphasizing the importance ofsafeguarding users' interests against unwarranted manipulation.