The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 18 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Becoming Human: How Perceived Anthropomorphism and Authenticity Influence Romantic Attractiveness of Chat Agents
Abstract
Social chatbots can provide users with specific social and emotional support, and intimate relationships represent an emerging area for exploration. This research describes the current state of self-disclosure in virtual romantic relationship dialogues. It examines the impact of self-disclosure with different emotions on the romantic attractiveness of virtual agents. Study 1 reveals that virtual romantic relationships are predominantly characterized by chat-based Platonic love, where individuals primarily establish these relationships to fulfill romantic needs. Study 2 highlights that perceived dialogue authenticity and anthropomorphism are vital factors attracting users to virtual agents. In contrast, the emotional category of self-disclosed personal stories in dialogues does not affect the romantic attractiveness of virtual agents. In the design of virtual romantic chatbots, more human-like conversational features, such as diverse emotional expressions, may be considered without necessarily maintaining a perpetually positive service demeanor.
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Many studies on social AI chatbots strongly underscore their use to meet social needs or perform social functions, including the experience of romantic or para-romantic relationships.
“Many of the studies on social AI chatbots strongly underscore their use to meet social needs or perform social functions, including the experience of romantic or para-romantic relationships (e.g., Ma & Koike, 2025).”
From How Do Fans Use AI Social Chatbots? A Multi-Method Exploration of Fan Accounts (2026) · cites this paper as Ma & Koike, 2025
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“To enhance the perceived similarity between participants and the chat agent, the agent was intentionally designed as a student, fostering an emotional connection between users and chat agents (Y.-C. Lee et al., 2020; A. Zhang & Patrick Rau, 2023).”
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“Anthropomorphic design can enhance human-agent relationships, boosting trust, satisfaction, and user engagement, especially in social chat agents (Araujo, 2018; Konya-Baumbach et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2024; Lu et al., 2024).”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Can Generative AI Chatbots Emulate Human Connection? A Relationship Science Perspective
Smith, M. G., Bradbury, T. N., & Karney, B. R. (2025) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916251351306 · Cited by 88
How Do Fans Use AI Social Chatbots? A Multi-Method Exploration of Fan Accounts
Lopez, S. C., & Taylor, L. D. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16091481
Metadata
- Authors
- Ma, S., & Koike, M.
- Affiliations
- Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics, Institute of Science Tokyo
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-03-27
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 14162-14175
- ISSN
- 1044-7318
- 1532-7590
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 18
- Language
- en
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