Social reactions toward people vs. computers: How mere lables shape interactions

What criteria afford a machine the status of a social agent? In this investigation, the mere label identifying an oral interviewer as human or computer was sufficient to affect participants’ responses toward the interviewer during an online interview for a competitive mock job. Participants’ impressions of the interviewer and self-reported emotional reactions to the interview were unaffected by the interviewer’s identity. Despite this invariance, however, participants exhibited more interpersonal displays when the interviewer was identified as human. Overall, these results show that participants engaged in heightened impression management strategies (deferral to, or attempts to engage or appease) with the “human” interviewer. The computer interviewer did not merit equivalent social status.