What You Say vs What You Do: Utilizing Positive Emotional Expressions to Relay AI Teammate Intent within Human-AI Teams

This paper uses a mixed-methods study, where 45 participants completed a study examining how human teammates interpret the behaviors of their AI teammates when they express different positive emotions via specific words/phrases. Quantitative results show that, based on corresponding behaviors, AI teammates were able to use displays of emotion to increase trust in AI teammates and the positive mood of the human teammate. Additionally, our qualitative findings indicate that participants preferred their AI teammates to increase the intensity of their displayed emotions to help reduce the perceived risk of their AI teammate’s behavior. When taken in sum, these findings describe the relevance of AI teammates expressing intensities of emotion while performing various behavioral decisions as a continued means to provide social support to the wider team and better task performance.