Avoidance of AI-Empowered Digital Service Assistants in Fashion Shopping: The Negative Side of Personalized Recommendation of Chatbots

Personalized chatbots pose a threat to freedom of choice as consumers react in the form of psychological reactance and avoidance, specifically when product involvement is high.

“According to Yoon et al. [23], personalized chatbots pose a threat to freedom of choice as consumers react in the form of psychological reactance and avoidance, specifically when product involvement is high.”

Perceived freedom threats are key mediators of avoidance.

“Yoon et al. [23] identify perceived freedom threats as key mediators of avoidance”

Personalized systems proposed by AI-driven chatbots stimulate reactance and avoidance, mediated by freedom-threat and negative affect.

“Yoon et al. [23] demonstrate that personalized systems proposed by AI-driven chatbots stimulate reactance and avoidance, mediated by freedom-threat and negative affect.”

Design elements that give agents more freedom or make them feel more personal can make people less likely to buy.

“Some studies show that design elements that give agents more freedom or make them feel more personal can make people less likely to buy [23,40]”

In everyday shopping situations, executor-like behavior can stop people from adopting something by making them feel powerless and can make reactance worse when recommendations seem to be steering or limiting.

“In everyday shopping situations, executor-like behavior can stop people from adopting something by making them feel powerless [40] and can make reactance worse when recommendations seem to be steering or limiting [23].”

Personalized or heavily directed recommendations can provoke reactance and avoidance, especially in contexts of heightened involvement or when such recommendations are viewed as limiting choice.

“Personalized or heavily directed recommendations can provoke reactance and avoidance, especially in contexts of heightened involvement or when such recommendations are viewed as limiting choice [23].”

Negative reactions arise when autonomy cues suggest a loss of control (reactance/threat-to-freedom) or displacement (powerlessness); conversely, positive outcomes are observed when systems facilitate friction reduction while maintaining perceived authorship and recourse.

“Negative reactions arise when autonomy cues suggest a loss of control (reactance/threat-to-freedom) or displacement (powerlessness); conversely, positive outcomes are observed when systems facilitate friction reduction while maintaining perceived authorship and recourse [23,24,40].”

Particularly in regular, non-urgent shopping contexts, the user experience can shift toward helplessness and threat-to-freedom reactions, resulting in lower adoption intentions and higher avoidance.

“Particularly in regular, non-urgent shopping contexts, the user experience can shift in these situations toward helplessness and threat-to-freedom reactions, resulting in lower adoption intentions and higher avoidance [23,40].”

Feelings of powerlessness and psychological reactance occur when cues of autonomy or personalization are perceived as threats to freedom or displacement, leading to decreased acceptance and heightened avoidance.

“First, feelings of powerlessness and psychological reactance occur when cues of autonomy or personalization are perceived as threats to freedom or displacement, leading to decreased acceptance and heightened avoidance [23,24,40].”

Marketing lift depends on maintaining the user's sense of control, not just on improving capability cues.

“This demonstrates that marketing lift depends on maintaining the user's sense of control, not just on improving capability cues (e.g., [22,23,40]).”

Negative pathways often come up through governance-related mediators, like powerlessness and reactance, which make adoption and delegation less likely even when benefits are clear.

“This is why negative pathways often come up through governance-related mediators, like powerlessness and reactance, which make adoption and delegation less likely even when the benefits are clear [23,40].”

Experiments confirm autonomy to powerlessness/reactance mechanisms and interface-driven reactance shifts, whereas surveys focus on usefulness/satisfaction/trust chains.

“This disparity is evident in both experimental and survey methodologies: experiments confirm autonomy → powerlessness/reactance mechanisms [23,40] and interface-driven reactance shifts [24], whereas surveys focus on usefulness/satisfaction/trust chains [42,44,69].”

Interface design is not superficial appearance; cues can shift agency perceptions and reactance, but the market importance of these cue pathways is still not well understood.

“This bridging logic follows the review's broader conclusion that interface design is not superficial appearance; cues can shift agency perceptions and reactance-but the market importance of these cue pathways is still not well understood [23,24].”

Personalization can cause avoidance through threat-to-freedom mechanisms, and high autonomy can decrease adoption through helplessness in routine contexts.

“This directly addresses findings that personalization can cause avoidance through threat-to-freedom mechanisms [23] and that high autonomy can decrease adoption through helplessness in routine contexts [40].”

Acceptance models usually assume that delegation is the action-level construct, and autonomy is the boundary condition that makes governance costs important.

“Acceptance models usually assume that delegation is the action-level construct, and autonomy is the boundary condition that makes governance costs important [23,24,40].”

The effects of manipulating autonomy frequently shift through governance mechanisms, such as perceived control and powerlessness/reactance.

“Second, the effects of manipulating autonomy frequently shift through governance mechanisms, such as perceived control and powerlessness/reactance, indicating that future research should treat governance and delegation as causal constructs rather than downstream correlates [23,24,46].”

Governance-related constructs (perceived control/agency, powerlessness/reactance, risk/privacy) consistently influence whether delegation is perceived as empowerment or displacement.

“In RQ2-RQ3, governance-related constructs (perceived control/agency, powerlessness/reactance, risk/privacy) consistently influence whether delegation is perceived as empowerment or displacement [23,24].”