Humanizing Chatbots: The Effect of Fear from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cong-Minh Dinh and Sungjun Steven Park ()
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Cong-Minh Dinh: National Chengchi University
Sungjun Steven Park: National Chengchi University

A chapter in Advances in Digital Marketing and eCommerce, 2022, pp 27-35 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Does fear of COVID-19 shape consumers’ tendency to anthropomorphize chatbots? To answer this question, this paper analyzed data from a survey of 377 US participants. Grounded in the three-factor theory of anthropomorphism, our results showed that fear of COVID-19 increases consumers’ tendency to imbue chatbots with human-like characteristics, which in turn leads to increased intention to use chatbot-powered mobile apps. In addition, our results also showed that consumers’ sensation-seeking (versus pragmatism-seeking) tendency toward using mobile apps moderated the indirect effect of fear on intention to use via perceived anthropomorphism. Our findings provide both theoretical and practical implications, especially with the recent call for utilizing chatbots in customer service due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Chatbot; Fear; Perceived anthropomorphism; COVID-19 pandemic; Sensation-seeking tendency; Pragmatism-seeking tendency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-05728-1_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05728-1_4

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