More and more websites are using Online Virtual Agents (OVA) to guide and/or advise their users/clients. But does the gender of OVAs and dress codes have a real impact?
Grégory Bressolles, Renaud Lunardo and François Durrieu carried out a study focusing on 7 hypotheses. In order to test them, 2 OVAs were created (1 male, 1 female, alternately either wearing a uniform or not) in order to try to answer these questions: to what extent is the gender and/or the dress code of the OVA taken into account, in terms of attractiveness, perception, trust, behaviour and, finally, intention to purchase?