Psychological, Relational, and Emotional Effects of Self-Disclosure After Conversations With a Chatbot
2018/05/30 by Annabell Ho, Annabell Suh Ho, Jeffrey T. Hancock +3 · 588 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Chatbot #Communication #Computer science #Conversation #Mechanism (biology) #Media Influence and Health #Mental Health via Writing #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Psychology #Self-disclosure #Social psychology #World Wide Web
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/joc/jqy026
published in Journal of Communication 68(4), 712-733 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2018/05/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Abstract
Disclosing personal information to another person has beneficial emotional, relational, and psychological outcomes. When disclosers believe they are interacting with a computer instead of another person, such as a chatbot that can simulate human-to-human conversation, outcomes may be undermined, enhanced, or equivalent. Our experiment examined downstream effects after emotional versus factual disclosures in conversations with a supposed chatbot or person. The effects of emotional disclosure were equivalent whether participants thought they were disclosing to a chatbot or to a person. This study advances current understanding of disclosure and whether its impact is altered by technology, providing support for media equivalency as a primary mechanism for the consequences of disclosing to a chatbot.
Citations
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