2 research outputs found
Effects of Persuasive Dialogues: Testing Bot Identities and Inquiry Strategies
Intelligent conversational agents, or chatbots, can take on various
identities and are increasingly engaging in more human-centered conversations
with persuasive goals. However, little is known about how identities and
inquiry strategies influence the conversation's effectiveness. We conducted an
online study involving 790 participants to be persuaded by a chatbot for
charity donation. We designed a two by four factorial experiment (two chatbot
identities and four inquiry strategies) where participants were randomly
assigned to different conditions. Findings showed that the perceived identity
of the chatbot had significant effects on the persuasion outcome (i.e.,
donation) and interpersonal perceptions (i.e., competence, confidence, warmth,
and sincerity). Further, we identified interaction effects among perceived
identities and inquiry strategies. We discuss the findings for theoretical and
practical implications for developing ethical and effective persuasive
chatbots. Our published data, codes, and analyses serve as the first step
towards building competent ethical persuasive chatbots.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Full paper to appear at ACM CHI 202