“HELLO! I WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH YOUR ONLINE JOURNEY TODAY!”

Due to the technological progress in recent years, which facilitated the simulation of humanlike features in virtual agents, children might be more likely than ever to interact with virtual assistants. However, there is limited research on children’s preferences in interacting with such digital entities. The present study investigated the preferences of 226 kindergarten and elementary school students, aged 3 to 13 (M = 7.38, SD = 2.01) related to the physical appearance of a virtual assistant (i.e., image and color) and to the welcoming message that the assistant will display. The results suggested that children aged 3 to 6 preferred an anthropomorphized heart as an avatar for the virtual assistant, while the other age groups preferred an anthropomorphized fox. Red and blue were the most common favorite colors among the participants. Our results suggest that younger children might be more prone to anthropomorphize and accept a broader category of objects and entities, while children of higher age might show preferences for living beings that already present some humanlike characteristics. Furthermore, the results suggested that children’s control in selecting colors of virtual assistants might help them to accept and like the virtual assistants more. The limitations of our research are also discussed.