Effects of Human-AI Voice Interaction in Sports Commentary on Perceived Credibility, Emotional Response, and Cognitive Recall

Abstract

This study examines how commentary source (human vs. artificial intelligence [AI]), commentator gender, and accent shape perceived credibility, affective responses, and cognitive recall in sports broadcasting. A 2 (source) × 2 (commentator gender) × 2 (accent) between-subjects experiment (N = 867) showed that human-voiced commentary received higher ratings than AI-voiced commentary for credibility, audience perception, and positive affect, while eliciting lower negative affect. Male commentator voices received higher credibility and audience perception ratings across conditions, whereas accent effects were weak. Cognitive recall remained stable across commentator gender and accent conditions and differed minimally by source. These findings are interpreted through an integrated human–computer interaction framework combining the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm, social presence theory, and symbolic power, which helps explain the divergence between socially shaped evaluative judgments and comparatively stable recall. The findings support a context-sensitive approach that prioritizes human voices for emotionally intense commentary and AI voices for structured, information-oriented segments.