The happy virtual agent and its impact on the human customer in the service encounter

Few existing virtual agents (VAs) that customers interact with in service encounters can experience emotions, but they can be (and often are) designed so that they appear to have this capability. The purpose of this study was to assess VAs' display of happiness in service encounters when the only means they have to express themselves is the text that they transmit. Linguistic elements that influence the perceived happiness of a (human) sender of...