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 "aboutThisFile": {
  "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.",
  "howItWasMade": "This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text.",
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  "howToUse": [
   "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).",
   "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.",
   "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.",
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   "To find other papers by Sean Rintel, use the catalogue at https://seanrintel.com/publications/index.json."
  ],
  "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.",
  "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text."
 },
 "name": "Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Joseph Newbold"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Gavin Doherty"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
   "sameAs": [
    "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0840-0546",
    "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654",
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
   ]
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Anja Thieme"
  }
 ],
 "datePublished": "2019-05",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html",
 "citation": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop.",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{newbold2019politeness,\nauthor = {Newbold, Joseph and Doherty, Gavin and Rintel, Sean and Thieme, Anja},\ntitle = {Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health},\nbooktitle = {CHI 2019 Workshop},\nyear = {2019},\nmonth = {May},\n}",
 "abstract": "There is growth in the development of conversational agents or chatbots to support (self-)management in mental health. Previous work has shown how perceptions of conversational agents as caring or polite both can contribute to a sense of empathy and aid disclosure of sensitive information; but also risk inviting misperceptions of their emotional capabilities. Recent research suggests that we need to better understand how the design of dialogue systems may impact people’s perceptions of a conversational agent, and through this their readiness to engage or to openly disclose about their mental health. In this paper, we suggest the use of Brown and Levinson’ politeness strategies to create dialogue templates for a mental health ‘mood log’, which has been shown to be beneficial way for technology to support mental health self-management, as a theoretical underpinning to the design of conversational dialogue structure.",
 "fullTextSources": [
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   "kind": "freeAccess",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.pdf",
   "label": "Author's Copy"
  }
 ],
 "dataNotes": [
  "The paper's Figure 1 caption misspells the model's authors as 'Brown and Levison'; the model is Brown and Levinson's (1987). The caption is quoted verbatim; the credit line uses the correct spelling."
 ],
 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "Mental health voice agents can word mood questions to appeal to people's wish to feel wanted, as a caring companion ('I would love to know…'). Or they can appeal to the wish not to be imposed on, as a neutral assistant. Caring wording risks implying empathy the agent lacks.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Conversational agents for mental health self-management are growing, and recent research suggests the authors need to better understand how dialogue design shapes people's perceptions of them.",
   "quote": "perceptions of conversational agents as caring or polite both can contribute to a sense of empathy and aid disclosure of sensitive information; but also risk inviting misperceptions of their emotional capabilities",
   "location": "§Introduction, p. 1"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "Rather than writing agent dialogue by intuition, the authors derive it from a theory of human conversation, applying Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies to the same mood-log questions to produce two contrasting dialogue templates.",
   "quote": "We created two dialogue templates by applying Brown and Levison's strategies for FTAs to a set of relevant questions for logging a person's mood",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers of dialogue for voice agents and chatbots that support mental health self-management, who must balance inviting disclosure against unrealistic expectations."
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "How can Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies be used to create dialogue templates for a mental health 'mood log', as a theoretical underpinning to the design of conversational dialogue structure?",
  "How might politeness be used to create different agent personalities, and how might this affect people's interactions with the agent and readiness to self-disclose about mental health?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Face-Threatening Act (FTA)",
   "definition": "The core of Brown and Levinson's politeness model:",
   "quote": "the concept of the Face-Threatening Act (FTA), any act which challenges the face wants of an interlocutor",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Positive and negative face",
   "definition": "Brown and Levinson divide face wants in two:",
   "quote": "A person's positive face is their desire to be wanted. A person's negative face is desire not to be impeded.",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Mood log",
   "definition": "The activity the authors' agents support:",
   "quote": "a mental health 'mood log', which has been shown to be beneficial way for technology to support mental health self-management",
   "location": "§Introduction, p. 1"
  },
  {
   "term": "Personal versus passive agent",
   "definition": "The two styles the authors distinguished (the passive style asks indirectly, like an impersonal assistant):",
   "quote": "those that were more personal - reflecting a sense of care for, or personal investment in, the person, like a human companion; and those that were more passive",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Design concept (CHI 2019 workshop paper): applying Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies for face-threatening acts to the questions of a mental health mood log.",
  "setting": "Dialogue for a conversational voice agent that helps a person log their mood, a mood situation, sleep and a diary entry.",
  "sample": "A set of mood log queries, from log initiation to log completion, each written in a 'personal' and a 'passive' version (Table 1). No user study.",
  "analysis": "Comparison of the wording each politeness strategy produces, and of the features (such as person pronouns and expressions of sentiment) that distinguish the two templates."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Blunt or vague questions offer little encouragement.",
   "summary": "Applying the politeness strategies to the opening of a mood log, the authors argue that asking directly, or hinting indirectly, gives a person little encouragement to respond. Phrasings that appeal to the wish to be wanted, or respect the wish not to be imposed on, can motivate engagement.",
   "quote": "a direct question: \"What is your mood today?\"; or an off-record approach to ask indirectly: \"Mood logging is a good way to track how you are feeling\"",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2",
   "cite": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop. (§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Some politeness implies a relationship.",
   "summary": "Some polite phrasings imply a personal connection and make the agent seem caring and emotionally intelligent. Others stay polite without implying empathy, as in this in-between example:",
   "quote": "\"If you let me know how you are feeling, I will log it for you\"",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-2",
   "cite": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop. (§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "The personal agent speaks as 'I' and 'we'.",
   "summary": "The authors' 'personal' template refers to itself in the first person, calls the user 'partner' and frames the mood log as something done together.",
   "quote": "It conveys a vested emotional interest in the person, stating to be \"glad to hear\", \"love to know\" and to \"hope to speak\" to the person again soon",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-3",
   "cite": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop. (§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Caring words, no feelings.",
   "summary": "The personal style can make the agent seem emotionally invested in the user even though the system has no such capability.",
   "quote": "despite a technical system free of any sentimental capability - to be emotionally invested in the user",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-4",
   "cite": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop. (§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "The passive agent stays in the background.",
   "summary": "The authors' 'passive' template uses no first-person pronouns, keeps the focus on the user, presents itself as an assistant and makes no emotional evaluations.",
   "quote": "\"Now that you have completed your mood entry this will be added to your log for you to review later\"",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-5",
   "cite": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop. (§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Why does wording matter when a chatbot asks how you feel?",
   "answer": "Asking about mood can threaten 'face' (a person's wish to be wanted and their wish not to be imposed on). Blunt questions or vague hints give little reason to answer, while wording that honours either wish can encourage people to engage.",
   "source": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Should a mood-tracking voice assistant sound caring?",
   "answer": "There is a trade-off. Earlier work shows caring or polite agents can foster empathy and the disclosure of sensitive information. But caring wording also makes a system with no feelings sound emotionally invested, which invites misperceptions of what it can do.",
   "source": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-2"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-4"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Can theories of human conversation guide chatbot design?",
   "answer": "They can supply structure. Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies turned one set of mood-log questions into two systematically different dialogue styles, from a caring companion to an impersonal assistant. Whether users respond as the theory predicts has not yet been tested.",
   "source": "Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-3"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.html#at-sdesigning-polite-conversational-voice-agents-for-mood-logging-p-2-5"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [],
 "quantitative": [],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "When moving dialogue structure from human conversation to voice agents, designers need to be mindful of, and study, how users come to perceive the agent and its purpose.",
   "quote": "we have to be mindful of, and need to better study, how users come to perceive the agents and their purpose in supporting a specific activity",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Dialogue design likely needs to balance inviting self-disclosure against unrealistic expectations of the agent.",
   "quote": "a careful balancing in the dialogue design in ways that invites self-disclosure without risking unrealistic expectations of the agents emotional or relational capabilities",
   "location": "§Designing Polite Conversational Voice Agents for Mood Logging, p. 2"
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "This is a design proposal. The two dialogue templates have not yet been tested with users, and their effect on engagement and self-disclosure remains to be studied."
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 1: Brown and Levison's politeness model from [1]",
   "alt": "Tree diagram of politeness strategies for a face-threatening act: do it on record baldly, on record with positive or negative politeness, off record, or don't do it.",
   "location": "Figure 1, p. 2",
   "credit": "Brown and Levinson's politeness model, as reproduced in Figure 1 from Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, and Anja Thieme. 2019. Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health. CHI 2019 Workshop."
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/politeness-strategies-in-the-design-of-voice-agents-for-mental-health.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "heading": "The paper",
   "summary": "A workshop paper that applies a theory of politeness to the questions a mental health voice agent asks when helping a person log their mood. It proposes two dialogue styles and has no user study.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "Politeness theory",
     "detail": "Brown and Levinson's model of face, meaning a person's wish to be wanted and wish not to be imposed on."
    },
    {
     "label": "A voice agent mood log",
     "detail": "Dialogue for a voice agent that helps a person log their mood, a mood situation, sleep and a diary entry."
    },
    {
     "label": "Compare the wording",
     "detail": "The paper compares the wording each politeness strategy produces, including pronouns and expressions of sentiment."
    }
   ]
  },
  "tool": {
   "heading": "The method",
   "steps": [
    {
     "title": "Start from the face threat",
     "text": "Each mood log question is treated as a possible threat to the person's face."
    },
    {
     "title": "Choose a politeness strategy",
     "text": "A question can be asked directly, hinted at, or worded to honour one of the two face wants.",
     "fields": [
      "ask directly",
      "hint",
      "appeal to being wanted",
      "avoid imposing"
     ],
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Personal template",
     "text": "Appeals to the wish to be wanted. The agent speaks as I and we, calls the user partner and voices care.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Passive template",
     "text": "Respects the wish not to be imposed on. The agent uses no first-person pronouns, acts as an assistant and makes no emotional evaluations.",
     "part": true
    }
   ],
   "note": "Both templates word the same mood log questions, from starting the log to completing it. Neither template has yet been tested with users."
  },
  "findings": {
   "heading": "What the paper argues",
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Wording a mood question",
     "sub": "argued from politeness theory",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues blunt or vague mood questions give little encouragement to respond.",
       "detail": "A direct question or an indirect hint offers little reason to answer. Wording that honours either face want can motivate engagement.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues some polite wording makes a voice agent seem caring and emotionally intelligent.",
       "detail": "Other wording stays polite without implying empathy, such as 'If you let me know how you are feeling, I will log it for you'.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "The two templates",
     "sub": "what each dialogue style conveys",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The personal template speaks as I and we, and frames the mood log as joint.",
       "detail": "The personal template calls the user partner and says it is glad to hear, would love to know and hopes to speak again soon.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The passive template keeps the focus on the user.",
       "detail": "The passive template uses no first-person pronouns, presents the agent as an assistant and makes no emotional evaluations.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues caring wording can imply feelings a voice agent does not have.",
       "detail": "The personal style can make a system with no emotional capability seem invested in the user. That risks misleading users about what the agent can do.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]",
        "takeaway"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "politeness strategies",
  "takeaway": "Politeness strategies can give mental health voice agents a principled way to word face-threatening questions, as caring companions or neutral assistants. Caring wording may invite disclosure yet imply empathy the agent lacks."
 }
}