“I Am Here to Assist You Today”: The Role of Entity, Interactivity and Experiential Perceptions in Chatbot Persuasion

ABSTRACT

Online users are increasingly exposed to chatbots as one form of AI-enabled media technologies, employed for persuasive purposes, e.g., making product/service recommendations. However, the persuasive potential of chatbots has not yet been fully explored. Using an online experiment (N = 242), we investigate the extent to which communicating with a stand-alone chatbot influences affective and behavioral responses compared to interactive Web sites. Several underlying mechanisms are studied, showing that enjoyment is the key mechanism explaining the positive effect of chatbots (vs. Web sites) on recommendation adherence and attitudes. Contrary to expectations, perceived anthropomorphism seems not to be particularly relevant in this comparison.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ As part of this project, we further measured trust/trustworthiness, resistance, involvement, relevance, and privacy concerns. These measures were not used in this or other publications.

² We conducted robustness checks for mindless anthropomorphism and social presence respectively, which did not significantly influence the results.

³ A robustness check was conducted only including participants who perceived the recommendation origin as intended (n = 139) and did not yield any significant results.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Research Priority Area Communication and its Digital Communication Methods Lab (digicomlab.eu) at the University of Amsterdam.

Notes on contributors

Carolin Ischen

Carolin Ischen (M.Sc., University of Amsterdam) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research interests lie primarily in the field of human-machine communication, with an emphasis on the persuasiveness of emerging communication technologies such as conversational agents.

Theo Araujo

Theo Araujo (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) is an associate professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. His research interests include the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and related technologies within digital society, with a special focus on conversational agents and automated decision making.

Guda van Noort

Guda van Noort (Ph.D., VU Amsterdam) is a full professor of Persuasion and New Media Technologies at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research is in persuasive communication through new media technologies, with an emphasis on opportunities and challenges of such technologies. She is also the director of SWOCC, the Foundation for Scientific Research in Commercial Communication in The Netherlands.

Hilde Voorveld

Hilde Voorveld (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) is an associate professor of Persuasion and New Media Technologies at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include the uses and effects of emerging media technologies in persuasive communication, with a special focus on algorithmic advertising.

Edith Smit

Edith Smit (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) is a full professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research is in persuasive communication with a focus on processing of advertising and tailored health campaigns.