{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T03:17:32Z","timestamp":1779333452983,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]],"date-time":"2024-05-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1715299200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Comput. Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Voice-AI assistants offer innovative ways for people to interact with technology, such as delivering search results through human-sounding voices. Unlike printed text, however, voices are associated with particular characteristics, such as accents, which have the potential to influence perceived credibility. Voice-AI assistants are also a relatively new phenomenon, and while people who use them frequently may be inclined to trust them, other people may not be. The current study investigated how voice accent and frequency-of-use affected users\u2019 credibility assessments of search results delivered by voice-AI assistants. Participants, who were native speakers of American English and self-classified themselves according to how frequently they used voice-AI assistants, listened to statements produced by neural text-to-speech in either an American English or British English accent. They then rated the credibility of both the information content and the voice itself, along several dimensions. Results showed that in multiple conditions, participants perceived information delivered by British-accented voices as more credible than that delivered by American English-accented voices. Furthermore, frequency-of-use exerted a significant effect on perceived trustworthiness of a voice. These findings have implications for the ethical design of voice-AI systems, and for human-computer interaction more generally.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcomp.2024.1411414","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]],"date-time":"2024-05-10T04:45:31Z","timestamp":1715316331000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["The influence of accent and device usage on perceived credibility during interactions with voice-AI assistants"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Anne","family":"Pycha","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Georgia","family":"Zellou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1177\/1077699015606057","article-title":"Measuring message credibility: construction and validation of an exclusive scale","volume":"93","author":"Appelman","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Mass Commun. Quart."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2012.11.001","article-title":"Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: keep it maximal","volume":"68","author":"Barr","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref3","volume-title":"Package \u2018lme4\u2019","author":"Bates","year":"2015"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1111\/1467-9481.00136","article-title":"Pax Americana? Accent attitudinal evaluations in New Zealand, Australia and America","volume":"5","author":"Bayard","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Socioling."},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"336","DOI":"10.1080\/08824096.2021.1980380","article-title":"Hey Alexa, why do we use voice assistants? The driving factors of voice assistant technology use","volume":"38","author":"Buteau","year":"2021","journal-title":"Commun. Res. Rep."},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101628","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tele.2021.101628","article-title":"\u201cOK, Google, why do I use you?\u201d motivations, post-consumption evaluations, and perceptions of voice AI assistants","volume":"62","author":"Choi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Telematics Inform."},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhcs.2015.05.008","article-title":"Voice anthropomorphism, interlocutor modelling and alignment effects on syntactic choices in human\u2212computer dialogue","volume":"83","author":"Cowan","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum. Comp. Stud."},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.24251\/HICSS.2020.544","article-title":"Gender Stereotyping\u2019s influence on the perceived competence of Siri and co","author":"Ernst","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actpsy.2018.04.003","article-title":"On the effects of regional accents on memory and credibility","volume":"186","author":"Frances","year":"2018","journal-title":"Acta Psychol."},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1027\/1864-1105\/a000384","article-title":"Is hearing really believing? The importance of modality for perceived message credibility during information search with smart speakers","volume":"36","author":"Gaiser","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Media Psychol."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.3316\/INFORMIT.097034846749023","article-title":"Building a stronger CASA: extending the computers are social actors paradigm","volume":"1","author":"Gambino","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hum. Mach. Commun."},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1515\/mult.2005.24.3.211","article-title":"Attitudinal data from New Zealand, Australia, the USA and UK about each other\u2019s Englishes: recent changes or consequences of methodologies?","volume":"24","author":"Garrett","year":"2005","journal-title":"Multilingua"},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"187","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470757000.ch7","article-title":"Assessing language attitudes: speaker evaluation studies","volume-title":"The handbook of applied linguistics","author":"Giles","year":"2004"},{"key":"ref14","author":"Lenth","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1093","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jesp.2010.05.025","article-title":"Why don\u2019t we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility","volume":"46","author":"Lev-Ari","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Exp. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103572","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actpsy.2022.103572","article-title":"Pragmatic and knowledge range lenience towards foreigners","volume":"226","author":"Lorenzoni","year":"2022","journal-title":"Acta Psychol."},{"key":"ref17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2019.05.009","article-title":"Hey Alexa \u2026 examine the variables influencing the use of artificial intelligent in-home voice assistants","volume":"99","author":"McLean","year":"2019","journal-title":"Comput. Hum. Behav."},{"key":"ref18","volume-title":"Voice and personality","author":"Pear","year":"1931"},{"key":"ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"626","DOI":"10.1002\/mar.21457","article-title":"Alexa, she\u2019s not human but\u2026 unveiling the drivers of consumers\u2019 trust in voice-based artificial intelligence","volume":"38","author":"Pitardi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Psychol. Mark."},{"key":"ref20","volume-title":"The effect of sociolinguistic accent on the believability of trivia statements","author":"Sarkis","year":"2015"},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"978","DOI":"10.1002\/hbe2.293","article-title":"Hello Alexa! Exploring effects of motivational factors and social presence on satisfaction with artificial intelligence-enabled gadgets","volume":"3","author":"Shao","year":"2021","journal-title":"Hum. Behav. Emerg. Technol."},{"key":"ref22","author":"Souza","year":"2013"},{"key":"ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"98","DOI":"10.1177\/0146167285111009","article-title":"Accent and social class effects on status and solidarity evaluations","volume":"11","author":"Stewart","year":"1985","journal-title":"Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull."},{"key":"ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"617","DOI":"10.1007\/s10936-016-9455-x","article-title":"The impact of foreign accent on credibility: an analysis of cognitive statement ratings in a Swiss context","volume":"46","author":"Stocker","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Psycholinguist. Res."},{"key":"ref25","volume-title":"The influence of accent on perceptions of credibility","author":"Taylor","year":"2015"},{"key":"ref26","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref27","volume-title":"How friendly are the natives? An evaluation of native-speaker judgements of foreign-accented British and American English","author":"van den Doel","year":"2006"},{"key":"ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jesp.2014.01.005","article-title":"The mind in the machine: anthropomorphism increases trust in an autonomous vehicle","volume":"52","author":"Waytz","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Exp. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref29","first-page":"61","article-title":"Do non-native and unfamiliar accents sound less credible? An examination of the processing fluency hypothesis","volume":"17","author":"Wetzel","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Article Support Null Hypo."},{"key":"ref30","volume-title":"American English: Dialects and variation","author":"Wolfram","year":"2016"},{"key":"ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"692","DOI":"10.1353\/lan.2023.a914191","article-title":"Listener beliefs and perceptual learning: differences between device and human guises","volume":"1","author":"Zellou","year":"2023","journal-title":"Language"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Computer Science"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fcomp.2024.1411414\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]],"date-time":"2024-05-10T04:45:37Z","timestamp":1715316337000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fcomp.2024.1411414\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]]},"references-count":31,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fcomp.2024.1411414"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fcomp.2024.1411414","relation":{},"ISSN":["2624-9898"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2624-9898","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]]},"article-number":"1411414"}}