That seems intuitive to me. When the computer is affective, I assume the programmer is talking to me.
Similar to cars, where we ascribe the physical properties of the vehicle to its owner, so we think that a tiny lady in a giant SUV is a big aggressive being, or that a truck driver is slow and dull.
> When the computer is affective, I assume the programmer is talking to me.
It's interesting that you mention this, and the researchers thought that the same effect might be happening. So they controlled for this, but I don't remember the experimental details. It turned out, however, that the majority of participants were __not__ treating the software messages as a proxy for the programmer who developed that software.
I actually feel the same way you do to some extent, especially as a computer programmer, but they have data, and I have only anecdotes.
Similar to cars, where we ascribe the physical properties of the vehicle to its owner, so we think that a tiny lady in a giant SUV is a big aggressive being, or that a truck driver is slow and dull.