Editing ELIZA effect (section)

== Characteristics ==
In its specific form, the ELIZA effect refers only to "the susceptibility of people to read far more understanding than is warranted into strings of symbols—especially words—strung together by computers".<ref name="Hofstadter1996">{{
cite book |author=Hofstadter, Douglas R.|year=1996|title=Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=somvbmHCaOEC|chapter=Preface 4 The Ineradicable Eliza Effect and Its Dangers, Epilogue|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=somvbmHCaOEC&pg=PA157|page=157|publisher=Basic Books|isbn= 978-0-465-02475-9 }}</ref> A trivial example of the specific form of the Eliza effect, given by [[Douglas Hofstadter]], involves an [[automated teller machine]] which displays the words "THANK YOU" at the end of a transaction. A naive observer might think that the machine is actually expressing gratitude; however, the machine is only printing a preprogrammed string of symbols.<ref name=Hofstadter1996/>

More generally, the ELIZA effect describes any situation<ref name="Fenton-Kerr1999">{{Cite book|chapter=GAIA: An Experimental Pedagogical Agent for Exploring Multimodal Interaction|title=Computation for Metaphors, Analogy, and Agents|last=Fenton-Kerr|first=Tom|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|year=1999|volume=1562|publisher=Springer|page=156|doi=10.1007/3-540-48834-0_9|isbn=978-3-540-65959-4|quote=Although Hofstadter is emphasizing the text mode here, the "Eliza effect" can be seen in almost all modes of human/computer interaction.}}</ref><ref name="Ekbia2008">{{cite book|title=Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence|last=Ekbia|first=Hamid R.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-521-87867-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/artificialdreams0000ekbi/page/n23 8]|url=https://archive.org/details/artificialdreams0000ekbi|url-access=registration}}</ref> where, based solely on a system's output, users perceive computer systems as having "intrinsic qualities and abilities which the software controlling the (output) cannot possibly achieve"<ref name="King1995">{{Cite tech report|title=Anthropomorphic Agents: Friend, Foe, or Folly|first=W.|last=King|id=M-95-1|publisher=University of Washington|year=1995}}</ref> or "assume that [outputs] reflect a greater causality than they actually do".<ref name="Rouse2005">{{cite book|title=Organizational Simulation|last1=Rouse|first1=William B.|last2=Boff|first2=Kenneth R.|publisher=Wiley-IEEE|year=2005|isbn=978-0-471-73943-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=371wV4dI7ckC&pg=PA308|pages=308–309|quote=This is a particular problem in digital environments where the "Eliza effect" as it is sometimes called causes interactors to assume that the system is more intelligent than it is, to assume that events reflect a greater causality than they actually do.}}</ref> In both its specific and general forms, the ELIZA effect is notable for occurring even when users of the system are aware of the [[determinate]] nature of output produced by the system.

From a psychological standpoint, the ELIZA effect is the result of a subtle [[cognitive dissonance]] between the user's awareness of programming limitations and their behavior towards the output of the [[computer program|program]].<ref name="Ekbia2008_quote">{{cite book|title=Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence|last=Ekbia|first=Hamid R.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-521-87867-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/artificialdreams0000ekbi/page/156 156]|url=https://archive.org/details/artificialdreams0000ekbi|url-access=registration|quote=But people want to believe that the program is "seeing" a football game at some plausible level of abstraction. The words that (the program) manipulates are so full of associations for readers that they CANNOT be stripped of all their imagery. Collins of course knew that his program didn't deal with anything resembling a two-dimensional world of smoothly moving dots (let alone simplified human bodies), and presumably he thought that his readers, too, would realize this. He couldn't have suspected, however, how powerful the Eliza effect is.}}</ref>