Now, a few years back, I was having a barbecue with friends and family. As usual, we talked about the weather, the good food or TV shows to watch. So nothing out of the ordinary until one attendee casually mentioned that he and his wife hadn't had sex in a long time. As you can imagine, what followed was an awkward silence. Until a six-year-old boy attending the barbecue with his parents blurted out that his parents had lots of sex and he could hear them all the time. And then the barbecue continued as if nothing had happened.
幾年前有一次我和親友們一起烤肉 和往常一樣,我們聊天氣、聊美食 或討論好看的電視節目 一切都很正常 直到某人無意中說起 他和妻子已經很久沒有做愛了 正如你能想像的 隨後是一陣尷尬的沉默 直到一位與父母同來烤肉的六歲小男孩 脫口而出說自己的父母經常做愛 而且他總能聽到聲音 接著這場烤肉就繼續下去 彷彿什麼也没發生過
Now, when I'm not having barbecues, I am researching how people interact with each other and how that transfers to their interactions with technologies, so not all too surprisingly, after this very unique social interaction at the barbecue, I was left wondering why we, the audience, were so greatly ignoring what the adult so openly shared with us that evening. So why the silence and then the laughter at the boy's comment? Well, both of them were breaking a social rule: never talk about sex, money or politics at a dinner table. We assume that an adult knows this rule and sticks to it. So when such expectations are broken, we sanction the offender accordingly -- in our case, with ignorance. When a child, however, breaks such a rule, we attribute this to their naive understanding of our social manners and up to a certain age at least, do not openly sanction them for it.
在烤肉之餘 我研究人與人如何互動 以及這如何轉化到與科技互動 因此,毫不奇怪地 在那次烤肉的特殊社交互動後 我對那個傍晚 大家如此忽視那位成年人 公開分享的內容感到困惑 為什麼大家會陷入沈默 然後又因為小男孩的話而發笑? 嗯,這兩人都打破了一項社交規則: 不在餐桌上討論性、金錢以及政治 我們都假設成年人 會知道這項規則並會遵守它 所以當這樣的期待被打破時 我們對破壞規則的人會有相應的反制 在這個案例中就是予以忽視 而當小孩破壞了這項規則 我們會歸因於孩子對於社交禮節 缺乏成熟的認知 因此至少在某個年齡之前 不會公開約束他們
Clearly, there is no official rule book for socially appropriate behaviors or even socially accepted dinner topics. In fact, our social norms are usually unwritten codes of conduct, and they change over time as we as a society change and learn. Less than a year ago, for instance, it was considered impolite not to shake hands when introducing yourself to someone. A few months and the worldwide spread of the coronavirus later and shaking hands may be something to be frowned upon and maybe even a thing of the past.
顯然地,社交行為是否合宜 並沒有正式的守則 也沒有適合餐桌的話題全集 事實上,我們的社會規範 通常是不成文的行為準則 而且隨著社會的變遷而改變 比如說,不到一年之前 向他人自我介紹時不握手 會被認為不禮貌 幾個月後,新冠肺炎肆虐全球 握手可能不再被認可 甚至成了過去式
The way we learn these social rules then is mostly by social rewards and social punishments. Now, as social animals, we aim for social approval and want to avoid other's disapproval. So we act in a way that is socially accepted and present ourselves in a socially desirable way to others. So we want to be seen as an individual that is smart, successful, sporty and active, creative, empathic and possibly all that at once. Now, through social media, our strive for social approval, and with it, our need for self-presentation and perfection has skyrocketed.
我們學習社交規範的方式 主要是透過社交酬賞和社交懲罰 身為社交動物 我們期望被社會認可 不想被他人否定 所以我們會遵循社會規篼 依照社會的喜好來呈現自己 我們都想被視為聰明且成功的人 擅長運動、活躍、富創造力與同理心 能同時兼具這些優點更好 社交媒體使得我們對社會認同的企求 和對自我表現和完美的追求 日益飛漲
Clearly, there is a flip side to all of this. In any social interaction, we do not only look for others' approval, but we also constantly fear other's disapproval when we cannot live up to their expectations. Just consider an adult with incontinence problems or a drug addiction. If he or she had to talk to a health care professional, what would you expect to find? Or if a soldier returned from combat and had to talk about their fears or problems, do you think they would open up easily?
顯然這一切的背後有不好的一面 在所有社交互動中 我們不僅尋求他人的認可 更經常憂慮我們會因無法滿足 他人的期待而遭到否定 想像一個人患有尿失禁 或染有毒癮 當他去諮詢醫療專家時 你覺得他會照實說嗎? 或是當一名從戰場回來的士兵 需要談到他們的恐懼和問題時 你認為開誠佈公對他們而言很容易嗎?
A team of USC researchers examined just that. So they looked at the data from the US Army. Traditionally, soldiers had to be interviewed by a human health care professional when returning from combat to check if everything is OK. Now, interestingly, the researchers found that soldiers hardly reported any problems after their returns. Surely many of them were truly fine, but the researchers also suspected that many soldiers did not dare to share their problems openly. After all, soldiers are trained to be strong and brave individuals that learn not to show any weaknesses. So openly admitting to have health problems, to have trouble sleeping or to have nightmares is not something easy to do for soldiers. The question then ultimately becomes how can we help individuals open up more easily and worry less about the judgment of others? Well, remember what I said earlier. We expect social evaluation in any social interaction. So how about we remove the social from the interaction? This is exactly what the team in the US did. In fact, they developed a virtual interviewer called SimSensei.
一個南加州大學的研究團隊 曾調查過這個現象 他們檢視了美軍的相關資料 傳統上,當士兵從戰場回來時 需要接受醫療專業人員訪談 來確認他們的狀況好不好 然而,有意思的是 研究人員發現士兵們從戰場歸來後 很少反應任何問題 當然這些士兵之中 很多人是真的沒事的 但研究人員也懷疑 有很多士兵不敢公開分享自己的問題 畢竟,士兵被訓練得要強壯、勇敢 要學會不展現任何弱點 因此坦承自己有健康問題 有睡眠問題,或者會作惡夢 對士兵來說並不是一件容易的事情 所以這個問題最終變成 我們如何幫助人們更願意敞開心扉 而不要太在意他人的評價? 前面我談到 我們預期在所有社交互動中 都會得到社交評價 那麼,如果把社交的成分 從互動中移除呢? 美國的這個團隊正是做了這樣的研究 他們研發了一個 叫做 SimSensei 的虛擬面試員
So SimSensei is a digital avatar that has a humanlike appearance and can interact with clients through natural conversations. Now, when returning from combat, soldiers were now interviewed by the digital avatar instead of that human health care professional. And what happened? Well, once SimSensei was introduced, soldiers reported more health problems, like having nightmares or trouble sleeping. So machines can help remove the social from the equation and help people open up more easily.
SimSensei 是一個 有人類外貌的數位化身 他可以用自然的交談與顧客互動 當士兵從戰場回來時 改由這個數位化身進行訪談 而不是原本的醫療人員 結果呢? 在面對 SimSensei 時 士兵們反應了更多的健康問題 比如經常做惡夢,或者有睡眠障礙 所以機器有助於移除社交元素 幫助人們暢所欲言
But careful, not all machines are created equal. Considering the tremendous advancements in technologies like computer graphics or natural language processing, machines have become increasingly humanlike. The question then ultimately becomes, which rules do we apply in these interactions? Do we still apply social rules when we interact with humanlike machines? So do we start to worry about social judgment again? This is exactly what I examine in my research.
但是要注意的是 並不是所有的機器都相同 基於電腦成像或自然語言處理 等方面的科技突飛猛進 機器越來越像真人了 於是我們的問題最終變成 在這樣的互動中 我們會運用什麼規則? 我們在與擬人機器互動時 仍然會使用社交規範嗎? 我們會顧慮社交評價嗎? 這正是我的研究中所要探討的
Together with colleagues, we have developed a series of chatbots. These chatbots were programmed to simulate text-based conversations and they were designed to be either very social and humanlike or very functional and machine-like. So, for instance, our humanlike bots use so-called speed disfluencies and social language cues, like these "ohos", "ahas", "hmms" we humans love to use in our conversations to signal our presence to conversation partners. In contrast, our machine-like bots lacked such social cues and simply kept to the talking points. Since we were interested in how much people would open up in these different conversations, we ask participants a number of questions, which gradually grew more and more personal, up to the point where we would ask participants to share possibly very delicate information about themselves.
我和同事們研發了一系列的聊天機器人 這些機器人可以模擬文字聊天 他們有的是擬人的社交型 有的是很機械化的功能型 舉例來說 我們的擬人機器人 可以使用所謂的交談緩衝詞 和社交語言信號 例如人類在交談中喜歡用的 「喔]、「啊哈]、「嗯] 來暗示交談對象我們在聽著 相反地,我們的功能型機器人 不會使用這些社交線索 只能就事論事 因為我們感興趣的是人們 在不同對話中坦誠的程度 我們對參與者提出了一系列問題 這些問題越來越有關隱私 直到最後我們要求參與者 分享一些可能很私密的訓息
Now, considering the findings from prior research, such as the one from the US Army before, we expected that people would apply more social rules in their interactions with these humanlike bots and act accordingly. So what did we find? Well, exactly that. So participants interacting with our humanlike bots were more concerned about social evaluation and as a result of this social apprehension, they also gave more socially desirable responses.
考慮到先前談到的研究結果 比如美軍的調查報告 我們預期參與者與這擬人機器互動時 會運用到更多社交規範 並且遵守這些規範 那麼我們得到什麼結果? 嗯,與預期完全相同 那些和擬人機器人互動的參與者 更在意社交評價 而因為這樣的社交顧慮 他們做出了更多符合社會喜好的回應
Let me give you an example. One of the most delicate questions that we asked participants was the number of prior sex partners they had had. When interacting with our humanlike bot, men reported to have significantly more prior sex partners and women reported to have significantly less than those men and women interacting with our mechanistic bot. So what does this all tell us? Well, first, men want to look good by having more prior sex partners and women by having less. Clearly, this already says a lot about what the different sexes consider socially desirable and how our expectations in society still differ across genders. But this opens up a whole new topic that I will better leave for other experts to discuss.
我來舉個例子 我們詢問參與者的一個很私密的問題 是他們曾經有過多少性伴侶 相較於與功能型機器人的交流 當他們跟擬人機器人交流時 男性回答的數目明顯增高 而女性回答的數目明顯減少 那麼這樣的結果告訴我們什麼? 首先, 男性想要藉由性伴侶眾多 來顯得很優秀 而女性正好相反 顯然,這已經說明 不同的性別如何看待社會偏好 以及我們的社會對男女 仍有不同的要求 而這個結果開啟了一個全新的議題 但這就要讓其它專家繼續去探究
Second, and maybe more importantly, from a consumer psychology perspective. People open up more easily when they interact with machines that are apparently just that -- machines. Today, a lot of sweat, money and tears is put into making machines basically indistinguishable from us. Now, this research can show that sometimes letting a machine be a machine is actually a good thing.
第二點,可能也是比較重要的一點 是要從消費心理學觀點來說 就是人們在與機器互動時更容易放鬆 就是那些像機器的機器 如今有大量的金錢、汗水、和淚水 被投入到開發與真人難以分辨的機器上 從我們的研究結果可以看到 有時候讓機器像個機器 其實是件好事
Which brings me to my third point. These machine interactions have been highly criticized at times. So you may have heard that Siri, Alexa or others make your kids rude or impolite. Hopefully, this research can show you a great upside of these machine interactions. In times of social media and our constant hunt for the next “like,” machines can give us grownups -- help us find that inner child again and give our constant need for self-presentation and perfection a time-out. For once, we do not need to worry if the number of prior sex partners is too high or too low, and instead it is OK to simply be who we are.
這就引出我要說的第三點 一些機器與人的互動 有時會受到嚴厲的批評 你可能聽說過 Siri、Alexa 或其他人工智能 讓小孩變得粗魯或無禮 但願這個研究結果能讓你看到 這樣的人機互動也有非常正面的意義 處於社交媒體的年代 我們不斷追求下一個「點讚」 機器可以幫助我們成年人 尋回內心中的純真 為我們不斷追求自我表達和追求完美 按下暫停鍵 就這麼一次,我們無需擔憂 我們有過的性伴侶太多或太少 我們可以單純地做自己就好
Ultimately, then, I think that these machines can remind us of a central element of what makes a good conversation partner: being nonjudgmental. so the next time you might encounter a unique social situation like mine at the barbecue, try to be less judgmental when another person openly shares their thoughts, feelings and problems with you. Many machines do this already, and maybe so should we.
最終,這些機器可以提醒我們 一個好的交談對象具備的核心要素: 不要批評 所以下回當你碰到特殊的社交狀況 好比我那個烤肉活動 當別人分享他的想法、感受或問題時 盡量不要做出評價 很多機器都已經這麼做了 或許我們也該如此
Thank you very much.
謝謝大家