Effects of Smart Virtual Assistants’ Gender and Language

Abstract

Smart virtual assistants (SVA) are becoming increasingly popular. Prominent SVAs, including Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, have female-gendered names and voices which raised the concern that combining female-gendered voices and submissive language amplifies gender stereotypes. We investigated the effect of gendered voices and the used language on the perception of SVAs. We asked participants to assess the performance, personality and user experience of an SVA while controlling the gender of the voice and the attributed status of the language. We show that low-status language is preferred but the voice's gender has a much smaller effect. Using low-status language and female-gendered voices might be acceptable but solely combining low-status language with female-gendered voices is not.