TY  - JOUR
A1  - Carolus, Astrid
A1  - Wienrich, Carolin
A1  - Törke, Anna
A1  - Friedel, Tobias
A1  - Schwietering, Christian
A1  - Sperzel, Mareike
T1  - ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ empathetic reactions towards a conversational agent
JF  - Frontiers in Computer Science
N2  - Conversational agents and smart speakers have grown in popularity offering a variety of options for use, which are available through intuitive speech operation. In contrast to the standard dyad of a single user and a device, voice-controlled operations can be observed by further attendees resulting in new, more social usage scenarios. Referring to the concept of ‘media equation’ and to research on the idea of ‘computers as social actors,’ which describes the potential of technology to trigger emotional reactions in users, this paper asks for the capacity of smart speakers to elicit empathy in observers of interactions. In a 2 × 2 online experiment, 140 participants watched a video of a man talking to an Amazon Echo either rudely or neutrally (factor 1), addressing it as ‘Alexa’ or ‘Computer’ (factor 2). Controlling for participants’ trait empathy, the rude treatment results in participants’ significantly higher ratings of empathy with the device, compared to the neutral treatment. The form of address had no significant effect. Results were independent of the participants’ gender and usage experience indicating a rather universal effect, which confirms the basic idea of the media equation. Implications for users, developers and researchers were discussed in the light of (future) omnipresent voice-based technology interaction scenarios.
KW  - conversational agent
KW  - empathy
KW  - smart speaker
KW  - media equation
KW  - computers as social actors
KW  - human-computer interaction
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258807
VL  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Djakovic, Lara
A1  - Hennig, Thomas
A1  - Reinisch, Katharina
A1  - Milić, Andrea
A1  - Whisnant, Adam W.
A1  - Wolf, Katharina
A1  - Weiß, Elena
A1  - Haas, Tobias
A1  - Grothey, Arnhild
A1  - Jürges, Christopher S.
A1  - Kluge, Michael
A1  - Wolf, Elmar
A1  - Erhard, Florian
A1  - Friedel, Caroline C.
A1  - Dölken, Lars
T1  - The HSV-1 ICP22 protein selectively impairs histone repositioning upon Pol II transcription downstream of genes
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection and stress responses disrupt transcription termination by RNA Polymerase II (Pol II). In HSV-1 infection, but not upon salt or heat stress, this is accompanied by a dramatic increase in chromatin accessibility downstream of genes. Here, we show that the HSV-1 immediate-early protein ICP22 is both necessary and sufficient to induce downstream open chromatin regions (dOCRs) when transcription termination is disrupted by the viral ICP27 protein. This is accompanied by a marked ICP22-dependent loss of histones downstream of affected genes consistent with impaired histone repositioning in the wake of Pol II. Efficient knock-down of the ICP22-interacting histone chaperone FACT is not sufficient to induce dOCRs in ΔICP22 infection but increases dOCR induction in wild-type HSV-1 infection. Interestingly, this is accompanied by a marked increase in chromatin accessibility within gene bodies. We propose a model in which allosteric changes in Pol II composition downstream of genes and ICP22-mediated interference with FACT activity explain the differential impairment of histone repositioning downstream of genes in the wake of Pol II in HSV-1 infection.
KW  - herpes virus
KW  - transcription
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358161
VL  - 14
ER  -