Breve descrizione dei contenuti: This paper presents some insights into the effect of ‘virtual gender ’ on the way people interact with, make sense of, and build relationships with conversational agents. The focus is on the linkage between sex stereotypes and aggression, in the form of verbal abuse towards the machine. Implications for design of embodied conversational agents are discussed.

Parole chiave: Virtual relationships - social scripts - Internet disinhibition - verbal abuse