When Do You Trust An Avatar?

David Zax reports on a upcoming study on virtual assistants:

On the whole, people reported higher engagement with avatars that looked like them, in terms of race and gender. They also learned better from the avatars when the helpers appeared to hold similar opinions about success. Learners who preferred striving for a a personal best (measured against prior performance), rather than an absolute best (measured against others' performance), learned more when their avatars measured success the same way.