- Women are perceived as more human than men, overall and compared to non-human entities (animals and machines).
- Female bots are endowed with more positive human qualities than male bots, and they are perceived as more human than male bots, compared to both animals and machines.
- The inferred humanness of female bots increases perceived uniqueness of treatment from them in a health context, leading to more favorable attitudes toward AI solutions.
We used several different measures of perceived humanness, compared to both animals and machines. For example, to measure blatant humanness of female and male bots compared to animals, we used the ascent humanization scale based on the classic “march of progress” illustration. We explicitly asked online respondents to indicate how “evolved” they perceived female or male bots to be, using a continuous progression from ancient apes to modern humans.