Gendered bods and bot abuse

[abstract]

In this paper, I present a preliminary study that examines the sexual comments and insults users directed at three conversational agents that differed in the gender impressions of their embodiment. The three types of embodiment explored in this study are male, female, and neuter-robotic. Results indicate that gendered presentation has little effect on insult frequency, but sexual comments greatly increase with female embodiment. Further analysis suggests that people perform gender with embodied agents, and do so more with female embodiment, at least within sexual contexts, than they do with male embodiment.

[full paper]