Browsing by Author "MacNeill, A. Luke"

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    Individual differences in views toward healthcare conversational agents: A cross-sectional survey study
    (Sage Journals, 2025-03-20) MacNeill, A. Luke; Luke, Alison; Doucet, Shelley
    Background and Objective To date, there has been limited research on people's attitudes and design preferences with respect to conversational agents (CAs) that are used for healthcare. Individual differences in attitudes and design preferences have received particularly little attention. The purpose of this study was to gain greater insight into this topic. Methods We recruited American and Canadian residents through the online research platform Prolific. Participants completed a cross-sectional survey assessing demographic, personality, and health factors, as well as attitudes and design preferences with respect to healthcare CAs. Hierarchical regressions were used to determine demographic, personality, and health predictors of attitudes and design preferences. Results A total of 227 participants (116 women; M age = 39.92 years, SD = 12.94) were included in the analysis. Participants tended to report slightly positive attitudes toward healthcare CAs, with more positive attitudes among American residents and people with lower income, lower education levels, and higher levels of the personality factor conscientiousness. In general, participants preferred CAs that use text communication, have unrestricted language input, are disembodied, and simulate health professionals in their presentation. CAs that use text communication were preferred to a greater degree among people with higher levels of digital health literacy, and disembodied CAs were preferred to a greater degree among people with lower levels of conscientiousness. Conclusion The results of this study provide insight into people's attitudes and design preferences with respect to healthcare CAs. This information will help guide developers on how to better design and market CAs for the health sector, which may increase people's adoption and use of these programs.
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    The developmental course of a parasocial relationship
    (University of New Brunswick, 2020) MacNeill, A. Luke; DiTommaso, Enrico
    The parasocial relationships that people form with figures from mass media have received a great deal of attention from researchers. However, little is known about the developmental course of these relationships. The purpose of the current study was to fill this fundamental gap in the literature by gaining a better understanding of how parasocial relationships change over time. A total of 98 participants were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses, 80 of whom were included in the final analysis. Participants were given a season of a designated television program on physical media to take home and watch. The strength of their parasocial relationships with the lead character in the program was tracked over four viewing weeks and two postviewing weeks. Parasocial breakup distress, the negative emotions that people experience when their contact with a media figure is severed, was also tracked in the postviewing period. Results indicate that parasocial relationships were moderately strong after initial exposure to the character. Relationship strength underwent small increases in subsequent viewing weeks and a small decrease over the postviewing weeks. Parasocial breakup distress was generally modest at the beginning of the postviewing period, and it also underwent a small decline over the postviewing weeks. Relationship strength and breakup distress were stronger among participants who reported higher levels of perceived similarity and attraction to the character, as well as higher levels of parasocial interaction, identification, wishful identification, and transportation. There was no evidence that changes in relationship strength or breakup distress varied according to these same variables. These results have implications for viewer attitudes and behaviors in several domains.