Virtual agents (VAs) need to exhibit engaged and affective behavior in order to become more effective social actors in our daily lives. However, such behaviors need to conform to social norms, especially in organizational settings. This study examines how different VA behaviors influence subjects' perceptions and actions in group decision-making processes. Participants exposed to VAs demonstrated varying levels of engagement and affective behavior during the group discussions. Engagement refers to the VA's focus on the group task, while affective behavior represents the VA's emotional state. The findings indicate that VA engagement positively influences user behavior, particularly in attention allocation. However, it has minimal impact on subjective perception. Conversely, affective expressions of VAs have a negative impact on subjective perceptions, such as social presence, social influence, and trustworthiness. Interestingly, in 64 discussions for tasks, only seven showed a decline in group scores compared to individual scores, and in six of these cases, the VA exhibited a non-engaged and affective state. We discuss the results and the potential implications for future research on using VAs in group meetings. It provides valuable insights for improving VA behavior as a team member in group decision-making scenarios and guides VA design in organizational contexts.

翻译：虚拟代理（VAs）需要表现出高度参与和情感行为，才能在日常生活中成为更有效的社会参与者。然而，此类行为需符合社会规范，尤其在组织情境中。本研究探究了不同虚拟代理行为如何影响受试者在群体决策过程中的感知与行动。在群体讨论中，接触虚拟代理的参与者表现出不同程度的参与和情感行为。参与程度指虚拟代理对群体任务的关注度，而情感行为则代表其情绪状态。研究结果表明，虚拟代理的参与行为对用户行为（特别是注意力分配）具有积极影响，但对主观感知影响甚微。相反，虚拟代理的情感表达对社会存在感、社会影响力和可信度等主观感知产生负面影响。值得注意的是，在64场任务讨论中，仅7场出现群体得分低于个体得分的情况，其中6场发生在虚拟代理表现为非参与且带有情绪的状态下。本文讨论了这些结果及其对未来群体会议中虚拟代理应用研究的潜在启示，为优化虚拟代理在群体决策场景中的团队成员行为提供了重要见解，并为组织情境下的虚拟代理设计提供了指导。