Digital helpers such as Google Assistant, Siri or Alexa became part of our lives, although not everyone is chatting to their mobile devices as yet — but if it goes the way it does, we all will be there one day. Are there any negative consequences that destroy our communication skills in using such helpers?

Politeness vs. rudeness and the use of digital assistants — what is the link?

A pair of IT analysts from the Brigham Young University researched whether there is a link between giving orders to digital assistants such as Siri and the way people talk to others.

Their research presented recently at the Americas Conference on IS was inspired by the increased global attention to the ways we communicate with our virtual assistants. It looks on the surface that our tendency to bark commands and boss them is gradually making us generally ruder to other people.

Multiple media services as well as concerned parents are worried about the fact that our army of digital helpers potentially influences our social skills and amiability.

Has Siri made you rude?

Nathan Burton and his college James Gaskin interviewed 274 people asking various questions aimed to draw a reliable conclusion.

According to Mr. Gaskin, an associate professor of Information Systems of the BYU, “The research proved that there is no cause for alarm that bossing around Alexa or Siri is making adults rough and disrespectful.”

So, no, we aren’t becoming ruder because of our commends to virtual help.

“The reason is that people do not personalize digital helpers to the irreversible degree. In other words, they do not treat them as human beings and do not see the need to tell them “thank you” or “please”, explains Mr. Gaskin.

As a matter of fact, this conclusion appeared quite surprising for the researchers. They were prepared for the reverse: that seeming impoliteness towards Siri or Alexa would change the way the users communicate with other people.

But if this fact is true with respect to adults, it may be different with respect to our kids.

Burton and Gaskin have not interviewed children yet, but have studied youngsters and teenagers whose social manners had been already developed. Analysts think that the conclusions might be quite different, if they reiterate the same kind of studies with children.

No, Siri didn’t make you less polite, scientists say.

Don’t take “Thank you” for granted

It appears that the researchers are not alone in their suspicions: the alarmed parents have triggered Amazon and Google to make corrections to their virtual assistants, which both now express gratitude and cheer kids who make polite requests.

According to the scientists, the more anthropomorphic virtual intellect becomes, the more it influences human perception. Humanlike artificially intelligent robotics, such as a modern Vector Robot with animated head, arms and meaningful eyes, seem to bring out sympathetic emotions and change our attitude towards a computerised machine.

Burton comments that the outcome of the research could probably be different, if all survey questions were devoted to Vector Robot.

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