A Study of Gender Similarity Between Animated Pedagogical Agents and Young Learners

Gender is strongly involved in the organization of interactions. According to the similarity-attraction hypothesis, learners may be more attracted to animated pedagogical agents that are similar to them, especially with regard to gender. Research on gender matching has so far yielded mixed results. However, the frequent use of tasks related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics may have interfered with the similarity-attraction relationship in these studies, as gender stereotypes suggest that boys are more associated with these fields than women. The aim of our study was to examine the effect of gender similarity on young learners (N = 47) performing a neutral task. Gender similarity was found to have a positive impact on learners' perceptions of animated pedagogical agents, but in the opposite-gender condition, learners were more engaged in the task. We discuss our results in the light of theory and previous research on gender matching.