{"paper":{"title":"GroupEnvoy: A Conversational Agent Speaking for the Outgroup to Foster Intergroup Relations","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"A conversational agent that voices outgroup perspectives during ingroup discussions reduces intergroup anxiety and improves perspective-taking more than reading the same transcripts.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.HC","authors_text":"Koken Hata, Reina Takamatsu, Rintaro Chujo, Wenzhen Xu, Yukino Baba","submitted_at":"2026-04-17T14:26:53Z","abstract_excerpt":"Conversational agents have the potential to support intergroup relations when psychological or linguistic barriers prevent direct interaction. Based on intergroup contact theory, we propose GroupEnvoy, a text-based conversational agent that represents outgroup perspectives during ingroup discussions. Its dialogue is grounded in data from a prior outgroup-only discussion. To evaluate this approach and derive design principles, we conducted a mixed-methods, between-subjects study with university students, in which host-country students formed the ingroup and international students formed the out"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed greater reduction in intergroup anxiety and greater improvement in perspective-taking.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the outgroup perspectives voiced by GroupEnvoy are sufficiently representative and unbiased because they derive from outgroup-only transcripts, and that any measured benefits stem from the conversational delivery rather than content differences or experimenter effects.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"An AI agent voicing outgroup views during ingroup tasks reduced anxiety and boosted perspective-taking more than passive transcript reading in a between-subjects study.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A conversational agent that voices outgroup perspectives during ingroup discussions reduces intergroup anxiety and improves perspective-taking more than reading the same transcripts.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"d9801e488e5713739de2a09df9b64fcf0af139c8dc2776777f7aa74291177853"},"source":{"id":"2604.16095","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"ed57ca11-97e0-416f-9e83-53175beb39de","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-10T08:01:30.927134Z","strongest_claim":"Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed greater reduction in intergroup anxiety and greater improvement in perspective-taking.","one_line_summary":"An AI agent voicing outgroup views during ingroup tasks reduced anxiety and boosted perspective-taking more than passive transcript reading in a between-subjects study.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the outgroup perspectives voiced by GroupEnvoy are sufficiently representative and unbiased because they derive from outgroup-only transcripts, and that any measured benefits stem from the conversational delivery rather than content differences or experimenter effects.","pith_extraction_headline":"A conversational agent that voices outgroup perspectives during ingroup discussions reduces intergroup anxiety and improves perspective-taking more than reading the same transcripts."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2604.16095/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}