The Dominance Effect: How Verbal and Nonverbal Cues of Virtual Agents Influence Decision-Making in VR

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) can influence users through verbal and nonverbal social cues. Focusing on dominance, we examine how verbal and nonverbal dominance cues influence users’ decision-making and perceptions of the agent in VR. We conducted a user study using a 2 (verbal: dominant vs. submissive) × 2 (nonverbal: dominant vs. submissive) full factorial design, operationalized through a route-selection task at a virtual crossroads. Results indicated that verbal dominance cues shaped participants’ dominance perception but did not influence decision-making, while nonverbal dominance cues affected route-selection behavior without altering perceived dominance. Both verbal and nonverbal cues also affected broader social evaluations of the agent (e.g., intelligence, competence, warmth, and trustworthiness), with nonverbal cues uniquely affecting likability and social presence. These findings highlight the complementary roles of verbal and nonverbal dominance cues in human–agent interaction in VR and inform the design of context-sensitive, dominance-calibrated ECAs for training, education, and decision support.