Proposal for Designing Virtual Human Personas to Alleviate Midlife Loneliness: Focusing on Parasocial Interactions Based on Human Likeness and Attractiveness; [중년의 외로움 완화를 위한 버추얼 휴먼 페르소나 설계 전략 제안: 버추얼 휴먼의 인간 유사성과 매력성에 따른 의사사회적 상호작용을 중심으로]

초록

Background Midlife can beisa period of loneliness and depression because of psychological and social changes. However, social support and attention to alleviate these issues are lacking. These daysPresently, virtual humans have gained attention as a technology capable of providing interactions similar to those with real people. Lonely individuals who are disconnected from friendships or social relationships are having a hard time in real-life interaction, so theyand can use AI agents, such as virtual humans, as a viable alternative to face-to-face communication. Therefore, this study aims to propose an effective virtual human persona design guide by focusing on factors that enhance interactions between virtual humans and users to support loneliness in midlife. Methods This study established a research model and questions based on a literature study to investigate the relationship between midlife loneliness and virtual humans. Subsequently, a pilot interview was conducted to create experimental stimuli, and an online survey was used to carry out the experiment. The results of statistical analysis not only evaluated the impact of the virtual human’s human likeness (visual and psychological similarity) on midlife parasocial interactions and loneliness (emotional and social loneliness) but also analyzed the mediating effect of parasocial interactions and the moderating effect of attractiveness (likability and similarity). Results First, virtual humans with high human likeness positively affect the alleviation of midlife loneliness, but excessive visual similarity can cause discomfort. Therefore, rather than resembling a human in appearance (visual similarity), the virtual human’s manner of speech (psychological similarity) is a crucial factor as an alternative for building bonds or social relationships. Second, virtual humans with high human likeness positively influence parasocial interactions with midlife individuals. Additionally, parasocial interactions with virtual humans are a key factor in alleviating loneliness, serving as a mediator between human likeness and the reduction of loneliness. Third, the more similar the values (perceived similarity) between midlife individuals and virtual humans, the higher the level of parasocial interactions, which positively impacts the alleviation of emotional loneliness. In summary, when designing virtual human personas for psychological support, psychological similarity with humans and perceived similarity with the recipient are important. A detailed and specific persona design system that can be personalized according to the causes of the recipient’s loneliness is necessary. Conclusions This study proposes a persona design guide for virtual humans by focusing on the key factors that need to be considered at each stage, such as appearance (visual characteristics), manner of speech (linguistic characteristics), and values (perceived similarity), according to the causes of midlife loneliness. This offers a theoretical and practical foundation for the effective utilization of virtual humans in mental support services. It is anticipated that this research will expand the possibilities for using virtual humans in the field of mental support and will be effectively applied in establishing design strategies for virtual humans across various communication-focused fields. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/), which permits unrestricted educational and non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

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