Chatting about the unaccepted: Self-disclosure of unaccepted news exposure behaviour to a chatbot

Carolin Ischen, Janice Butler and Jakob Ohme

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2024, vol. 43, issue 10, 2044-2056

Abstract: Conversational technologies such as chatbots have shown to be promising in eliciting self-disclosure in several contexts. Implementing such a technology that fosters self-disclosure can help to assess sensitive topics such as behaviours that are perceived as unaccepted by others, i.e. the exposure to unaccepted (alternative) news sources. This study tests whether a conversational (chatbot) format, compared to a traditional web-based survey, can enhance self-disclosure in the political news context by implementing a two-week longitudinal, experimental research design (n = 193). Results show that users disclose unaccepted news exposure significantly more often to a chatbot, compared to a traditional web-based survey, providing evidence for a chatbots’ ability to foster the disclosure of sensitive behaviours. Unlike our hypotheses, our study also shows that social presence, intimacy, and enjoyment cannot explain self-disclosure in this context, and that self-disclosure generally decreases over time.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2023.2237605

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