2024/08/26 by Rosina Márquez Reiter, Mandie Iveson · 1 voice
Computer Science · Psychology · #AI in Service Interactions #Social Robot Interaction and HRI #Spam and Phishing Detection
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/17504813241266905
openalex publication_date 2024/08/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In this paper we explore human communicative behaviour in unsolicited commercial telephone calls between human telemarketers and ‘bots’ that exhibit human characteristics. Drawing on a corpus of recorded telephone conversations between telemarketers and a spam-interception service, we examine some of the communicative dimensions through which telemarketers make sense of their interactions with this technology as trust, or rather the illusion of it, is established, severed and restored. The analysis shows how trust is established early in the calls through an authentic human voice, the illusion of progressivity and purported intersubjectivity, including ‘doing-being-human’ excuses. In cases where telemarketers realise they had not been talking to a human, verbal abuse towards the bot, and expressions of surprise and embarrassment oriented to their professional face are articulated as the call is used as a training opportunity to identify bots. The article contributes to understanding some of the technology enabled contemporary communicative practices human beings engage in as part of their everyday lives. It raises questions about how humans negotiate trust and validate authenticity in an increasingly automated and technologically driven world.