{"title":"Avoiding embarrassment online: Response to and inferences about chatbots when purchases activate self‐presentation concerns","authors":"Jianna Jin, Jesse Walker, R. W. Reczek","doi":"10.1002/jcpy.1414","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We explore how self‐presentation concerns and the desire to avoid embarrassment impact two distinct types of interactions consumers have with chatbots: interactions when a chatbot's identity is (1) not disclosed and therefore ambiguous or (2) disclosed. We propose that consumers feel less embarrassed with a chatbot than a human service agent in purchase contexts where self‐presentation concerns are active because consumers ascribe less mind to chatbots. Therefore, when a chat agent's identity is ambiguous, consumers with greater self‐presentation concerns are more likely to infer that an agent is human because this judgment allows consumers to proactively protect themselves from potential embarrassment in the event they are interacting with a human. We further show that when agent identity is clearly disclosed, consumers respond more positively to chatbots than human agents. However, this effect is contingent on the extent to which the chatbot is imbued with human characteristics: Anthropomorphizing chatbots leads consumers with higher self‐presentation concerns to ascribe more mind to even clearly identified chatbots, resulting in a more negative consumer response.","PeriodicalId":48365,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Consumer Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1414","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We explore how self‐presentation concerns and the desire to avoid embarrassment impact two distinct types of interactions consumers have with chatbots: interactions when a chatbot's identity is (1) not disclosed and therefore ambiguous or (2) disclosed. We propose that consumers feel less embarrassed with a chatbot than a human service agent in purchase contexts where self‐presentation concerns are active because consumers ascribe less mind to chatbots. Therefore, when a chat agent's identity is ambiguous, consumers with greater self‐presentation concerns are more likely to infer that an agent is human because this judgment allows consumers to proactively protect themselves from potential embarrassment in the event they are interacting with a human. We further show that when agent identity is clearly disclosed, consumers respond more positively to chatbots than human agents. However, this effect is contingent on the extent to which the chatbot is imbued with human characteristics: Anthropomorphizing chatbots leads consumers with higher self‐presentation concerns to ascribe more mind to even clearly identified chatbots, resulting in a more negative consumer response.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Consumer Psychology is devoted to psychological perspectives on the study of the consumer. It publishes articles that contribute both theoretically and empirically to an understanding of psychological processes underlying consumers thoughts, feelings, decisions, and behaviors. Areas of emphasis include, but are not limited to, consumer judgment and decision processes, attitude formation and change, reactions to persuasive communications, affective experiences, consumer information processing, consumer-brand relationships, affective, cognitive, and motivational determinants of consumer behavior, family and group decision processes, and cultural and individual differences in consumer behavior.