This Computer Responds to User Frustration Theory, Design, Results, and Implications

Abstract

Use of technology often has unpleasant side effects, which may include strong, negative emotional states that arise during interaction with computers. Frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety and similar emotional states can affect not only the interaction itself, but also productivity, learning, social relationships, and overall well-being. This paper suggests a new solution to this problem: designing human-computer interaction systems to actively support users in their ability to manage and recover from negative emotional states. An interactive affect-support agent was designed and built to test the proposed solution in a situation where users were feeling frustration. The agent's text-only interaction used components of active listening, empathy, and sympathy, in an effort to support users in their ability to recover from frustration. The agent's effectiveness was evaluated against two control conditions, which were also text-based interactions: (1) users' emotions were ignored, and (...