Recent advancements in AI have highlighted its application in captology, the field of using computers as persuasive technologies. We hypothesized that the "conformity effect," where individuals align with others' actions, also occurs with AI agents. This study verifies this hypothesis by introducing a "Persuadee Agent" that is persuaded alongside a human participant in a three-party persuasive dialogue with a Persuader Agent. We conducted a text-based dialogue experiment with human participants. We compared four conditions manipulating the Persuadee Agent's behavior (persuasion acceptance vs. non-acceptance) and the presence of an icebreaker session. Results showed that when the Persuadee Agent accepted persuasion, both perceived persuasiveness and actual attitude change significantly improved. Attitude change was greatest when an icebreaker was also used, whereas an unpersuaded AI agent suppressed attitude change. Additionally, it was confirmed that the persuasion acceptance of participants increased at the moment the Persuadee Agent was persuaded. These results suggest that appropriately designing a Persuadee Agent can improve persuasion through the conformity effect.

翻译：近年来人工智能的进展凸显了其在劝导技术学（captology）——即利用计算机作为劝导技术的研究领域——中的应用。我们假设“从众效应”——即个体倾向于与他人行为保持一致的现象——同样存在于AI智能体中。本研究通过引入一个在由劝导者智能体主导的三方说服性对话中与人类参与者同步被说服的“被劝导者智能体”，验证了这一假设。我们开展了基于文本对话的人类参与者实验，通过操控被劝导者智能体的行为（接受劝导 vs. 不接受劝导）以及是否设置破冰会话，共比较四种实验条件。结果显示：当被劝导者智能体接受劝导时，感知说服力与实际态度改变均显著提升；当同时采用破冰会话时，态度改变达到最大；而未被说服的AI智能体则会抑制态度改变。此外，研究证实当被劝导者智能体被说服的瞬间，参与者的说服接受度同步上升。这些结果表明，通过合理设计被劝导者智能体，可以利用从众效应增强说服效果。