Persuasive expert systems: the influence of confidence and discrepancy

A major topic for expert system research is identifying the success factors for their development. Considerations include the shaping of end-user atti tudes and expectations to facilitate user acceptance, Factors involved with these considerations include the actual use and persuasive power of a depl oyed expert system. To help determine if persuasive power can be manipulate d, we applied a theory of persuasion from the psychology literature and con ducted an experiment studying expert system solution acceptance. The result s indicate, for naive users, that confidence in the source of expertise, se lf-confidence, and the degree of discrepancy between the user's opinion and that of the expert system are all related to the persuasive power of the s ystem. Developers of expert systems for naive users need to address all thr ee elements to ensure that their applications are in fact persuasive. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.