With the rise of human-machine communication, machines are increasingly designed with humanlike characteristics, such as gender, which can inadvertently trigger cognitive biases. Many conversational agents (CAs), such as voice assistants and chatbots, default to female personas, leading to concerns about perpetuating gender stereotypes and inequality. Critiques have emerged regarding the potential objectification of females and reinforcement of gender stereotypes by these technologies. This research, situated in conversational AI design, aims to delve deeper into the impacts of gender biases in human-CA interactions. From a behavioral and communication research standpoint, this program focuses not only on perceptions but also the linguistic styles of users when interacting with CAs, as previous research has rarely explored. It aims to understand how pre-existing gender biases might be triggered by CAs' gender designs. It further investigates how CAs' gender designs may reinforce gender biases and extend them to human-human communication. The findings aim to inform ethical design of conversational agents, addressing whether gender assignment in CAs is appropriate and how to promote gender equality in design.

翻译：随着人机通信的兴起，机器日益被赋予拟人化特征（如性别），这些特征可能无意中触发认知偏差。许多会话代理（如语音助手和聊天机器人）默认采用女性人格，引发了对固化性别刻板印象与不平等的担忧。针对此类技术可能导致的女性物化及性别偏见强化问题，学界已提出批评。本研究立足于对话式人工智能设计领域，旨在深入探究人机交互中性别偏见的影响。从行为与传播学视角出发，本研究不仅关注用户对会话代理的感知，更聚焦于以往鲜少探索的用户语言风格。研究旨在揭示预先存在的性别偏见如何被会话代理的性别设计所触发，并进一步探究会话代理的性别设计如何强化性别偏见，进而延伸至人际交流。研究结果将为会话代理的伦理设计提供依据，阐明性别赋予在会话代理中的适用性，以及如何在设计中促进性别平等。