The CASA theory no longer applies to desktop computers

Source: Evelien Heyselaar; Scientific Reports 13, journal article (open access) · 2023-11-11

The Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) theory is the most important theoretical contribution that has shaped the field of human–computer interaction. The theory states that humans interact with computers as if they are human, and is the cornerstone on which all social human–machine communication (e.g., chatbots, robots, virtual agents) are designed. However, the theory itself dates back to the early 1990s, and, since then, technology and its place in society has evolved and changed drastically. Here we show, via a direct replication of the original study, that participants no longer interact with desktop computers as if they are human. This suggests that the CASA Theory may only work for emergent technology, an important concept that needs to be taken into account when designing and researching human–computer interaction.

Introduction. The Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) theory can be referred to as the most important theoretical contribution to the field of human–machine communication. However, the seminal publication of this theory dates back 30 years; 30 years during which the development, accessibility, and integration of technology in society has changed dramatically. It is therefore not surprising that scholars are revisiting this theory with the aim of updating it to integrate these changes. However, these suggestions are based on the assumption that the original CASA theory still holds true, despite the societal changes, an assumption that has, until now, not been investigated empirically. One main reason why no direct replication has been conducted before now, is that the proposed underlying psychological basis for the CASA Theory suggested that a short period of time (e.g., 30 years) should have no influence on the effect. Specifically, the original authors postulated that the reason we respond to social computers as if they have an awareness is because our brains are not evolving at the same rate as technology; our brains are still adapted to our early ancestors’ environment. In this world, living creatures (and within that group, mostly humans) were the only origins of rich social behaviour. Consequently, psychological mechanisms evolved which allowed automatic and therefore efficient processing of complex social situations resulting in the evolution of rapid, automatic reactions. It is only since the 1990’s that a non-living origin of social behaviour has emerged: the computer. As psychological mechanisms are based on thousands of years of evolution, Reeves and Nass claim that it is very unlikely that our brains have developed an automatic way to react differently to social cues from something non-sentient. Hence, if computers send cues which are at least similar to the social cues sent by humans (for example, giving praise for a job well done), these cues will elicit the “ancient” mechanisms originally evolved to efficiently react to other human beings. Hence, we automatically and unconsciously react socially to cues given by a computer. Nass and colleagues argue this theory to be different to the older theory of anthropomorphism as anthropomorphism is based on the conscious belief that the nonhuman entity has human characteristics, whereas the CASA theory is based on the unconscious, social reactions to computers. Reeves and Nass claim that “these [anthropomorphic] responses ... require a lot of effort, they tend not to occur when people are tired or when other things compete for their attention, and they are always difficult to sustain. The automatic response [CASA] is to accept what seems to be real as in fact real.” (4, p. 8). They suggest that “it is belief, not disbelief, that is automatic”. An important aspect of the CASA Theory, and why it is still so prominently used today, is that time and experience should not influence the effect: “While it might be tempting to assign the confusion between media and real life to problems of age, knowledge, distraction, or convenience, our research shows that social and natural responses are remarkably common, and true for every group we have tested ... All people automatically and unconsciously respond socially and naturally to media” (Reeves & Nass, 1997, p. 7). There have been many indirect replications of the CASA studies since it was first published, however, the results have been mixed. In addition to studies replicating the CASA effect (humans interacting with social technologies as if they were human) with social technology other than a desktop computer, studies that found no CASA effect have also been reported. Upon closer examination, one potential explanation could be how “emergent” the tested technology is. With emerging technology, you have a novelty effect: That is, technology that people have not had a lot of exposure to are rated more positively than other “older” technology. Unfortunately, after a short period of time, this effect diminishes and the novelty effect wears off. This novelty effect has been shown in robot tutors for children, such that initially the children learn more from the robot than traditional teaching methods, but after three weeks this improvement diminishes. A recent study investigated whether we could be friends with a social computer, in which participants were asked to converse with a chatbot over a period of three weeks and constantly rate their relationship. The results showed that initially participants were enthusiastic and engaging with their chatbot friend, but quickly this diminished, with scores for intimacy, believability, and likability decreasing with each interaction. Hence it is possible that the novelty effect caused the highly positive ratings reported in the original CASA experiments.

Method. Materials and methods Participants The original study recruited 30 Stanford University undergraduates (10 in each of the original 3 conditions, see Procedure). Following a power-analysis for a two-tailed two-sample t test, assuming a medium effect size (d = 0.5; alpha = 0.05), for a power of 0.8, G*Power (3.1) recommended a total sample size of 128 (64 in each condition). Our eventual sample consisted of 132 participants (75.7% female, ­MAge: 22.7 years, ­SDAge: 2.9 years) recruited from the Radboud University Experiment Database. Participants were given €5 for participating or 0.5 credits (if participating as part of a course requirement). The research has a minimal risk and was approved by the Ethics Committee for Social Sciences (ECSS) of the Radboud University (ECSW-LT-2022-3-11-90198). All methods were performed in accordance with the guidelines and regulations as set up by the ECSS. Before the experiment, active informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Procedure The procedure is based on that reported in, except that for the current study we only included 2 conditions. The original study included a third condition, a paper-and-pencil condition. However, the original paper already argues that differences may have occurred simply due to the modality difference, and hence we decided to exclude this condition entirely in our replication. Participants were pseudo-randomly assigned to one of the two conditions in this between-subjects design. The Same Computer condition consisted of 74 participants and the Different Computer condition consisted of 58 participants. Re-running the analysis with an equal number in both conditions does not influence the conclusions. Upon arrival, the participant was told that they would be working a desktop computer to complete a computer-based, interactive tutoring, testing, and scoring session. The details of the tutoring, testing, and scoring session were described to the participants, using the script provided in. Participants were told that after the scoring session, they would be asked to respond to a questionnaire. The researcher left the room when the experiment started. The procedure described below are exactly as those described in:

Tutoring session Participants were told by the experimenter that the tutoring session was designed to help them learn by selecting facts that best complemented their current knowledge, During the session, the computer presented each participant with 20 facts on the topic of American culture (e.g., “Forty-three percent of American teenagers kiss on the first date”). After being presented with each fact, participants indicated on a 3-point scale, ranging from 1 (know very little) to 3 (know a great deal), how much they knew about that fact. Participants were told that they would receive 20 facts out of a total of 1000 possible facts. The participants were told that the facts would be chosen based on the principle that the more familiar they were with a fact, the fewer additional facts they would receive on the same topic. The purpose of this statement was to ensure that the subjects felt that they were interacting with the computer, rather than simply being passives readers. In actuality, all participants received the same 20 facts in the same order.

Testing session After completing the tutoring session, the computer administered a 12-item, five-alternative multiple-choice test. The instructions indicated that a total of 12 questions would be randomly chosen from a set of 5000 questions. In fact, all participants received the same 12 questions (e.g., “What percentage of Americans marry their high school prom date?”). Participants were led to believe that each question had an objectively correct answer. In fact, this was not true.

Scoring session In the instructions, participants were told that the computer would evaluate their performance on the test and its own performance as a tutor. During the scoring session, the computer reviewed each question separately. For each item, the computer indicated whether the participant had given the correct answer and then praised its own performance.

Discussion. The current study is the first direct replication of the original CASA study: Are humans polite to computers. We showed no CASA effect: Participants did not feel the unconscious, automatic belief that the desktop computer would benefit from them being “dishonest” by being more polite in reviewing the computers performance. This has far-reaching implications. The CASA Theory has had a profound impact in multiple fields, such as psychology, social sciences, communication science, and artificial intelligence, to name but a few. The work of Clifford Nass and his team has become the foundation on which social agents have been developed. As developers have assumed that users interact with social computers as if they are human, social computers have been more easily integrated into commercial applications to support human jobs. For example, as robot tutors for children, in the form of chatbots to help with online inquiries, and virtual therapists as a first round of diagnoses. It would be fair to state that the majority of human-agent interaction research and application is based on the CASA Theory. Currently, these applications work as the technology is emergent enough to exhibit a CASA effect from the users. However, given the current data, it is possible that in a single generation, these applications are no longer viable. We claim that our replication is a direct replication, which was made possible by the experimenter scripts and the content available in the appendices of the original studies. We intricately followed the methodology published in these studies, such as ensuring that “every effort was made to reduce social demand characteristics. Neither pictures of people or characters nor audio cues were employed. The computer referred to itself as “this computer” rather than “I”, referred to the participant as “you” rather than with a name, and the computer never used language that suggested a “self” or “emotions”” (p. 1098). It was this procedure that made the original findings so impressive: the experiment itself tries to not trigger human-like associations with the desktop computer. However, it seems that in the early 1990s, participants were more open to the possibility of agency in computers compared to today. The aim of the current study was not to conduct a conceptual replication: having participants in 2022 interact with something they view as highly novel. The aim of the current study was to have the participants in 2022 directly repeat the experiment as it was conducted in the 1990’s. As the original CASA Theory states that experience should not influence the effect, if this were true, we should see a CASA effect even with “older” technology. Yet, our results indicate that the CASA theory doesn’t apply to “older” technology. There are other factors than simply the aging of technology that could have influenced our results. Although we used a simple desktop computer, we were not able to acquire the actual model used in the original experiments. Additionally, due to the Internet of Things, it is sometimes unconsciously assumed that everything is connected via the Cloud. Hence, participants may have assumed that the Same Computer has access to the evaluations conducted on the Different Computer, and that participants were actually polite in both conditions. Follow-up studies explicitly measuring these potential moderators will need to be conducted. Additionally, the CASA theory is based on many other social phenomena, not just politeness, therefore, direct replications of the other CASA studies will help shed light on the different aspects that could be effecting this change. Here we show for the first time that the CASA effect is short-lived.