AI Seduces Stanford Students

Kevin Poulsen writes:

Psychologists and salesmen call it the "chameleon effect": People are perceived as more honest and likeable if they subtly mimic the body language of the person they're speaking with. Now scientists have demonstrated that computers can exploit the same phenomenon, but with greater success and on a larger scale.

Stanford researchers engaged 69 students in a study where they were presented with a virtual person to discuss an upcoming change in school policy. Some of them were mimicked having their facial and body movements repeated back to them with a 4 second delay. There was a portion that were instead recorded using other students gestures so they would still seem real enough but not be mimicking the students they were addressing. Those who were mimicked had a much more favorable reaction to the agent than those who were not. These findings are remarkable enough on their own, but there was another experiment done previously that was even more intriguing.

One week before the last presidential election they conducted a voting experiment. They had three groups this time. One was the control which was shown photos of Bush and Kerry and asked to complete a survey of their attitudes towards each. They showed Bush had about the same 3 point lead as the actual election. The second group was shown a morphed photo of Bush with about a 40/60 ratio of the person taking the survey. The third group was shown a morphed photo of Kerry. The second group favored Bush by a 15 point spread, while the third group favored Kerry by a 6 point spread.

This was a little disturbing but not all that surprising. It is not a particular arrangement I would have naturally thought of, but given the setup, it seems reasonable that the results would vary by that much. It goes to show that the subtle influences and marketing really work. This something advertisers and marketing firms are already familiar with. Just wait until they get their hands on this technology. Now that late night infomercial could have an even more powerful appeal. Stay tuned for further developments, I can see this being misused by everyone.

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