Students of the Digital Media study program together with Dr. Robert Porzel from the Digital Media Lab (both University of Bremen) conducted an experiment with 20 participants with a simulated courteous language assistant. Inquiries to "Eliza" had to be answered with "Please" and "Thank you" or to be formulated subjunctively to get an answer by her. Instead of querying a command like "How will the weather be in Paris" it has to be berformed in a friendly variant - such as "Would you please tell me how the weather will be in Paris?". Missing these "magic words" let "Eliza" remain inactive and ask for a more polite interaction.
Here is the media response to the experiment: