Talking Surveys: How Photorealistic Embodied Conversational Agents Shape Response Quality, Engagement, and Satisfaction

In plain English

Eighty UK participants completed psychometric surveys either by speaking to a photorealistic video avatar or by typing with a chatbot, producing 2,265 conversational responses. The avatar condition drew significantly more informative and detailed answers (mean informativeness 285.41 versus 142.23, p < .001) and higher, more time-efficient engagement; satisfaction did not differ between the two. Participants attributed the lack of satisfaction difference to personal preference, turn-taking delay and uncanny valley reactions, which is a useful reminder that richer data and a better felt experience are not the same win.