Health Communication Research 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.31
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pISSN : 2093-2707 / eISSN : 2671-5856
- https://journal.kci.go.kr/hcr
KJCKorea
Journal Central
The Split Persona Effect in Healthcare: Focusing on the Different Roles of Agent
- Health Communication Research
- 2025, 24(2), pp.145~175
- DOI : 10.24172/hcr.2025.24.2.145
- Publisher : Korea Health Communication Association
- Research Area : Social Science > Journalism and Broadcasting > Communication
- Received : June 28, 2025
- Accepted : August 12, 2025
- Published : August 31, 2025
Yejin Lee 1, Doha Kim 1, S. Shyam Sundar 2, Jinyoung Han 1, Hayeon Song 1
1성균관대학교
2성균관대학교/펜실베니아주립대학교
Accredited
ABSTRACT
As the adoption of digital technologies accelerates, conversational agents are increasingly employed in healthcare. The personas of these agents play an important role in user interaction. This study explores the design and implementation of conversational agents in healthcare, specifically aiming to examine the effects of split persona where agents are distinguished by their roles. An experiment (N = 84 participants) was conducted using a 2 (nurse agent: absence vs. presence) × 2 (doctor agent: absence vs. presence) between-subjects design. They interacted with assigned agents regarding health-related surveys and recommendations. The results showed that interactions with the nurse agent led to more positive effects on perceived usefulness, attitude, and satisfaction compared to doctor agent. Additionally, the condition with split persona did not show significant effects compared to the single agent condition. These findings have important implications for healthcare conversational agent design, highlighting careful persona consideration to enhance user experience.
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