The Artificial Personality Model: Theory, Implementation, Measurement and Experimental Validation in Conversational Agents
Authors: Alexander Dregger, Barbarella Petz, Erik Kuhn, Pia Volk, Andreas Oberweis, Stefan Hillmann, Jannik Strötgen
Organizations: Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Kaiserstr. 89, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany · Innovation, Strategy and Transfer, FZI Research Center for Information Technology, Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10–14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany · Department of Computer Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 25, 12489 Berlin, Germany · Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Moltkestr. 30, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany · Quality & Usability Lab, Technische Universität Berlin, Marchstr. 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
Artificial personality shapes user experience (UX) in human-machine interaction, yet coherent theoretical frameworks and validated measurement instruments remain limited. This paper refines and empirically evaluates the Artificial Personality Model (APM), a hybrid framework integrating human-centred and machine-specific personality dimensions. Across three experiments (N = 395), the model was operationalised and evaluated using the Artificial Personality Questionnaire (APQ). Factor analyses revealed that some human personality dimensions (e.g., agreeableness, conscientiousness) are partially transferable, whereas others (e.g., extraversion) did not emerge as distinct dimensions. Additional machine-specific dimensions were identified. The APQ provided encouraging initial psychometric evidence, while the human-centred BFI-2 showed poor reliability and an uninterpretable factor structure in Experiment 3. Experimental manipulations demonstrated significant effects of artificial personality on user satisfaction, continuous use intention, and social presence. The findings contribute an empirically refined framework and a novel instrument for measuring perceived artificial personality, offering practical guidance for designing conversational agents.
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China · School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore