 Chatbot ads with a human touch: A test of anthropomorphism, interactivity, and narrativityYuan Sun, Jin Chen and S. Shyam Sundar Journal of Business Research, 2024, vol. 172, issue C Abstract: Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots are increasingly capable of simulating human-like conversations. But, is this desirable for strategic communications? Will chatbots be more persuasive if they are more human-like, not only in their appearance but also in their interaction and delivery of advertising content? We explored these questions with a 2 (chatbot profile: human-like vs. machine-like) x 2 (message interactivity: high vs. low) x 2 (ad type: narrative vs. factual) experiment (N = 414). Data reveal that high message interactivity fosters positive attitudes toward the chatbot and the ad by mitigating violated expectancy. Narrative ads promote chatbot advertising through perceived transportation. A three-way interaction revealed that when a chatbot is machine-like in appearance, higher interactivity and adoption of a narrative style of delivery serve to increase ad persuasiveness by heightening social presence. Theoretical and practical implications for chatbot advertising are discussed. Keywords: Chatbot advertising; Anthropomorphism; Message interactivity; Narrative transportation; Social presence (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:172:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323007622 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114403 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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