Psychological, Relational, and Emotional Effects of Self-Disclosure After Conversations With a Chatbot
Open accessAbstract
Disclosing personal information to another person has beneficial emotional, relational, and psychological outcomes. When disclosers believe they are interacting with a computer instead of another person, such as a chatbot that can simulate human-to-human conversation, outcomes may be undermined, enhanced, or equivalent. Our experiment examined downstream effects after emotional versus factual disclosures in conversations with a supposed chatbot or person. The effects of emotional disclosure were equivalent whether participants thought they were disclosing to a chatbot or to a person. This study advances current understanding of disclosure and whether its impact is altered by technology, providing support for media equivalency as a primary mechanism for the consequences of disclosing to a chatbot.
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Simply disclosing concerns and receiving emotionally supportive responses can have positive value in some contexts.
“Simply disclosing concerns and receiving emotionally supportive responses can have positive value in some contexts25.”
From Chatbots in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) · cites this paper as [25]
In a study in which students believed they were speaking with a conversational AI, the students reported feeling better after talking about their problems following the encounter.
“In a study in which students believed they were speaking with a conversational AI, the students reported feeling better after talking about their problems following the encounter (43).”
From Key Considerations for Incorporating Conversational AI in Psychotherapy (2019) · cites this paper as [43]
Some studies show evidence that people respond well and disclose more personal information if the chatbot is presented as a bot and can also display emotions.
“However, contrary findings have also been identified as some studies show evidence that people respond well and disclose more personal information if the chatbot is presented as a bot and can also display emotions [60,61].”
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ResultMy Chatbot Companion - a Study of Human-Chatbot Relationships
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My AI Friend: How Users of a Social Chatbot Understand Their Human–AI Friendship
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An overview of and recommendations for more accessible digital mental health services
Lattie, E. G., Stiles-Shields, C., & Graham, A. K. (2022) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-021-00003-1 · Cited by 446 · see citing works
Liu-Thompkins, Y., Okazaki, S., & Li, H. (2022) · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · doi:10.1007/s11747-022-00892-5 · Cited by 441 · see citing works
“As an affective dimension of artificial empathy, empathic concern involves a domain that AI and machines in general are considered not very competent in due to the inherent complexity of emotions (Ho et al. 2018; Longoni and Cian 2022).”
BackgroundTsai, W.-H. S., Liu, Y., & Chuan, C.-H. (2021) · Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing · doi:10.1108/jrim-12-2019-0200 · Cited by 394 · see citing works
Zhang, J., Oh, Y. J., Lange, P., Yu, Z., & Fukuoka, Y. (2020) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/22845 · Cited by 363 · see citing works
“However, contrary findings have also been identified as some studies show evidence that people respond well and disclose more personal information if the chatbot is presented as a bot and can also display emotions [60,61].”
ResultSong, M., Xing, X., Duan, Y., Cohen, J. F., & Mou, J. (2022) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102900 · Cited by 345 · see citing works
Chatbots in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
Miner, A. S., Laranjo, L., & Kocaballi, A. B. (2020) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-020-0280-0 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Self-citationEmotional Support from AI Chatbots: Should a Supportive Partner Self-Disclose or Not?
Meng, J., & Dai, Y. H. (2021) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1093/jcmc/zmab005 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Croes, E. A. J., & Antheunis, M. L. (2021) · Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · doi:10.1177/0265407520959463 · Cited by 291 · see citing works
“Furthermore, these studies can compare multiple chatbots or even employ a Wizard of Oz paradigm (e.g., Ho et al., 2018), where people are made to believe they are talking to a chatbot (while they are talking to another human).”
BackgroundInfluentialAlexa, what do we know about conversational commerce? Insights from a systematic literature review.
Lim, W. M., Kumar, S., Verma, S., & Chaturvedi, R. (2022) · Psychology & Marketing · doi:10.1002/mar.21654 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
Nicolescu, L., & Tudorache, M. T. (2022) · Electronics · doi:10.3390/electronics11101579 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
Millennials' attitude toward chatbots: an experimental study in a social relationship perspective
Cicco, R. D., Silva, S. C. L. D. C. E., & Alparone, F. R. (2020) · International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management · doi:10.1108/ijrdm-12-2019-0406 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Effectiveness of an Empathic Chatbot in Combating Adverse Effects of Social Exclusion on Mood
de Gennaro, M., Krumhuber, E. G., & Lucas, G. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03061 · Cited by 265 · see citing works
Future directions for chatbot research: An interdisciplinary research agenda
Følstad, A., Araujo, T., Law, E. L.-C., Brandtzaeg, P. B., Papadopoulos, S., Reis, L., Baez, M., Laban, G., McAllister, P., Ischen, C., et al. (2021) · Computing · doi:10.1007/s00607-021-01016-7 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
A longitudinal study of human–chatbot relationships
Skjuve, M., Følstad, A., Fostervold, K. I., & Brandtzaeg, P. B. (2022) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102903 · Cited by 253 · see citing works
“Ho et al. (2018) found that higher levels of self-disclosure between users and chatbots were associated with more enjoyment during interactions.”
BackgroundTo chat or bot to chat: Ethical issues with using chatbots in mental health
Coghlan, S., Leins, K., Sheldrick, S., Cheong, M., Gooding, P., & D’Alfonso, S. (2023) · Digital Health · doi:10.1177/20552076231183542 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Hu, B., Mao, Y., & Kim, K. J. (2023) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2023.107760 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Bendig, E., Erb, B., Schulze-Thuesing, L., & Baumeister, H. (2022) · Verhaltenstherapie · doi:10.1159/000501812 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
“An example of a paradigm that is currently receiving much attention in this research context is therapeutic writing [Tielman et al., 2017; Bendig et al., 2018; Ho et al., 2018].”
Munnukka, J., Talvitie–Lamberg, K., & Maity, D. (2022) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107343 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Murtarelli, G., Gregory, A., & Romenti, S. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.018 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
He, Y., Yang, L., Qian, C., Li, T., Su, Z., Zhang, Q., & Hou, X. (2023) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/43862 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
“Certain studies claimed that CAIs can help users feel accompanied and understood [19,20]; several studies found that users establish therapeutic bonds with chatbots [21-24]; and other studies revealed some hazards associated with CAIs, including misunderstanding that may result in inefficient or…”
Cano, E. V., Andrés, S. M., & Menéses, E. L. (2021) · International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education · doi:10.1186/s41239-021-00269-8 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Beattie, A. J., Edwards, A. P., & Edwards, C. C. (2020) · Communication Studies · doi:10.1080/10510974.2020.1725082 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
“Ho et al. (2018) showed that people can perceive warmth, enjoyment, and comforting messages from chatbots.”
BackgroundConceptual Metaphors Impact Perceptions of Human-AI Collaboration
Khadpe, P., Krishna, R., Fei-Fei, L., Hancock, J. T., & Bernstein, M. S. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3415234 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
“ersational agent We sought a conversational AI agent whose actual performance was strong enough for our result to generalize as the underlying AI models improve. So, following a pattern in prior work [12, 34, 71, 74], we adopt a Wizard-of-Oz study paradigm. We hire and train customer-support professionals from the Upw…”
MethodSelf-citationHe, Y., Yang, L., Zhu, X., Wu, B., Zhang, S., Qian, C., & Tian, T. (2022) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/40719 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
“A mental health chatbot provides more accessibility than traditional face-to-face counseling and psychotherapy [15,16], through which users can feel accompanied and understood [17,18].”
Pentina, I., Xie, T., Hancock, T. D., & Bailey, A. A. (2023) · Psychology and Marketing · doi:10.1002/mar.21853 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? How AI service agents alter consumer self-disclosure
Kim, T. W., Jiang, L., Duhachek, A., Lee, H., & Garvey, A. (2022) · Journal of Service Research · doi:10.1177/10946705221120232 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Jiang, Y., Yang, X., & Zheng, T. (2022) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107485 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Key Considerations for Incorporating Conversational AI in Psychotherapy
Miner, A. S., Shah, N., Bullock, K. D., Arnow, B. A., Bailenson, J., & Hancock, J. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00746 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
“In a study in which students believed they were speaking with a conversational AI, the students reported feeling better after talking about their problems following the encounter (43).”
BackgroundSelf-citationAI will never convey the essence of human empathy
Perry, A. (2023) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01675-w · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Schuetzler, R. M., Giboney, J. S., Grimes, G. M., & Nunamaker, J. F. (2018) · Decision Support Systems · doi:10.1016/j.dss.2018.08.011 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
“Prior research has found that people often treat computer systems as if they were human [1,29] — for example, by applying politeness norms [30], re-ciprocating self-disclosure [31], and expressing a feeling of connection [32].”
BackgroundPriya, B., & Sharma, V. (2023) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2023.107912 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Finding love in algorithms: deciphering the emotional contexts of close encounters with AI chatbots
Li, H. Z., & Zhang, R. (2024) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1093/jcmc/zmae015 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Finding Love in Algorithms: Deciphering the Emotional Contexts of Close Encounters with AI Chatbots
Li, H., & Zhang, R. (2024) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/xd4k7 · Cited by 150
Jang, S., Kim, J., Kim, S., Hong, J., Kim, S., & Kim, E. J. (2021) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104440 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Engaging the Avatar: The effects of authenticity signals during chat-based service recoveries
Jones, C. L. E., Hancock, T. D., Kazandjian, B., & Voorhees, C. M. (2022) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.012 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Peng, C., van Doorn, J., Eggers, F., & Wieringa, J. E. (2022) · International Journal of Information Management · doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102533 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Park, G., Chung, J., & Lee, S. (2022) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03932-z · Cited by 153 · see citing works
“The emotional disclosures were designed based on Malloch and Zhang’s (2019) and Ho and colleagues’ (Ho et al., 2018) studies to illustrate the chatbot’s feelings and emotional reflections.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialLou, C., Kang, H., & Tse, C. H. (2021) · International Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/02650487.2021.1951510 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
“…of research focuses on the comparison of human-human and human-chatbot communication and examines the perceived differences between the two in terms of their effects on consumer perceptions and experiences (e.g., Fryer, Nakao, and Thompson 2019; Ho, Hancock, and Miner 2018; Mou, Xu, and Xia 2019).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialThird-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans
Ovsyannikova, D., de Mello, V. O., & Inzlicht, M. (2025) · Communications Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44271-024-00182-6 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
“PublicperceptionofAIanditsinvolvementinempathicsupportiscomplex, in fl uencedbydiverseindividualandperceptualfactors 19,20,26,27 .”
InfluentialChatbots to Support Young Adults’ Mental Health: An Exploratory Study of Acceptability
Koulouri, T., Macredie, R. D., & Olakitan, D. (2022) · ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1145/3485874 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
“In Inkster et al. [2018], users of the Wysa chatbot, an app to offer depression therapy, selected pre-formatted options to give feedback about the app, with the majority finding it helpful and encouraging.”
BackgroundResultOh, J., Jang, S., Kim, H., & Kim, J.-J. (2020) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104171 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Alabed, A., Javornik, A., Gregory‐Smith, D., & Casey, R. (2023) · European Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1108/ejm-01-2023-0037 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Investigating managers' understanding of chatbots in the Korean financial industry
Jang, M., Jung, Y., & Kim, S. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106747 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
I-It, I-Thou, I-Robot: The Perceived Humanness of AI in Human-Machine Communication
Westerman, D., Edwards, A. P., Edwards, C. C., Luo, Z., & Spence, P. R. (2020) · Communication Studies · doi:10.1080/10510974.2020.1749683 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
“As Ho et al. (2018) argue, “ what matters most is not the partner ’ s humanness, but what occurs in the interaction itself ” (p. 726).”
BackgroundArtificial Intelligence Chatbot for Depression: Descriptive Study of Usage.
Dosovitsky, G., Pineda, B. S., Jacobson, N. C., Chang, C., Escoredo, M., & Bunge, E. L. (2020) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/17065 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
“Ho et al [9] found that interactions with chatbots were as effective as human interactions in offering emotional, relational, and psychological benefits and that they focused on the impact of personal disclosure.”
BackgroundLaban, G., Kappas, A., Morrison, V., & Cross, E. S. (2024) · International Journal of Social Robotics · doi:10.1007/s12369-023-01076-z · Cited by 119 · see citing works
“Longitudinal studies that address similar questions with disembodied agents such as virtual assistants and chatbots [e.g., 52–54] benefit from access to users’ personal devices, whereas research with physically embodied artificial agents (i.e., social robots) remains far rarer due to challenges with…”
Tsai, W. S., Lun, D., Carcioppolo, N., & Chuan, C. (2021) · Psychology and Marketing · doi:10.1002/mar.21556 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Applicants’ Fairness Perceptions of Algorithm-Driven Hiring Procedures
Lavanchy, M., Reichert, P., Narayanan, J., & Savani, K. (2023) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-022-05320-w · Cited by 120 · see citing works
“As a result, job applicants react in the same manner to both an algorithm and human recruiter (Ho et al., 2018; Reeves & Nass, 1996).”
BackgroundSabour, S., Zhang, W., Xiao, X., Zhang, Y., Zheng, Y., Wen, J., Zhao, J., & Huang, M. (2023) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2023.1133987 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
“Previous work has shown that individuals are willing to self-disclose their emotional problems with machines (Gratch et al., 2013; Ho et al., 2018; Liang et al., 2021), which is significant as users’ self-disclosure is essential for providing support.”
BackgroundResultNißen, M., Selimi, D., Janssen, A., Cardona, D. R., Breitner, M. H., Kowatsch, T., & von Wangenheim, F. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.107043 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
“Construing chatbots as social actors (Ho, Hancock, & Miner, 2018) that can act on their own as “ novel, human-created communication entities, playing their own social role ” (Hoorn, 2018, p. 1) implies similar relationship-building processes between users and chatbots under the Media Equation…”
BackgroundWu, R., Liu, J., Chen, S., & Tong, X. (2023) · Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing · doi:10.1108/jrim-09-2022-0265 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Measuring Depression Symptom Severity from Spoken Language and 3D Facial ExpressionsPreprint
Haque, A., Guo, M., Miner, A. S., & Fei-Fei, L. (2018) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1811.08592 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
“Additionally, people experience psychological benefits from disclosing emotional experiences to chatbots [17].”
BackgroundSelf-citationFølstad, A., & Taylor, C. (2021) · Quality and User Experience · doi:10.1007/s41233-021-00046-5 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Inzlicht, M., Cameron, C., D'Cruz, J., & Bloom, P. (2023) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2023.12.003 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
“And when people do self-disclose to chatbots, they feel as good as when they self-disclose to other people [10].”
BackgroundSocial interactions and relationships with an intelligent virtual agent
Lee, S. K., Kavya, P., & Lasser, S. C. (2021) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102608 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Chatbot Advertising As a Double-Edged Sword: The Roles of Regulatory Focus and Privacy Concerns
Kim, W., Ryoo, Y., Lee, S.-Y., & Lee, J. A. (2022) · Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/00913367.2022.2043795 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
“…to personalized advertising to create more relevant and cost-effective messages (Adomavicius and Tuzhilin 2005), to increase customer loyalty (Ho, Hancock, and Miner 2018), to generate favorable attitudes and greater PIs (Tucker 2014; White et al. 2008; Zarouali et al. 2019), and to enhance…”
BackgroundEffects of Persuasive Dialogues: Testing Bot Identities and Inquiry Strategies
Shi, W., Wang, X., Oh, Y. J., Zhang, J., Sahay, S., & Yu, Z. (2020) · Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3313831.3376843 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
“[22] studied the effects of identity (chatbot vs.”
BackgroundKim, M., Lee, S., Kim, S., Heo, J.-I., Lee, S., Shin, Y., Cho, C., & Jung, D. (2025) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/65589 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
A Longitudinal Study of Self-Disclosure in Human–Chatbot Relationships
Skjuve, M. B., Følstad, A., & Brandtzæg, P. B. (2023) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwad022 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
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 · see citing works
“…participants self-disclosed to what they thought was either a chatbot or a human, the benefits of emotional disclosures, including improved mood and perceived relationship quality, were equivalent across conditions, regardless of the perceived identity of the conversation partner (Ho et al., 2018).”
Guingrich, R. E., & Graziano, M. S. A. (2024) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1322781 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
“This effect is found even though benefits of emotional self-disclosure are equal whether people are interacting with chatbots or human partners (Ho et al., 2018).”
BackgroundRheu, M., Dai, Y. H., Meng, J., & Peng, W. (2024) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/00936502231221669 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
“Previous research on support chatbots has examined perceived understanding (Ho et al., 2018) and sincerity (Liu & Sundar, 2018) as critical perceptions of a support chatbot.”
The Use of Chatbots in Digital Business Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review
Miklošík, A., Evans, N., & Qureshi, A. M. A. (2021) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2021.3100885 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
“There were three studies with more than 200 citations iden-tified in the Google Scholar database [22], [51], [53], and further six papers with more than 100 citations [50], [55], [60], [61], [66], [71].”
Background(2022) · doi:10.2196/32630 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
“Research under the social response theory—also known as the computers are social actors paradigm or the media equation—has demonstrated that individuals anthropomorphize conversational agents that exhibit human-like social cues [25], treat them as social actors [26], and are capable of developing relationships with th…”
BackgroundAccessible conversational user interfaces
Lister, K., Coughlan, T., Iniesto, F., Freear, N. D., & Devine, P. (2020) · International Web for All Conference (W4A) · doi:10.1145/3371300.3383343 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
“Conversely however, there is evidence that some of the emotional, relational and psychological benefits of personal conversations can be replicated with CUIs [14]”
BackgroundChen, J., Li, M., & Ham, J. R. C. (2024) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103320 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Gu, C., Zhang, Y., & Zeng, L. (2024) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-024-03879-5 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
“…Are Social Actors) factors play a constructive role in maintaining user trust in AI chatbots in service failure scenarios, echoing past research suggesting that improving user experiences with AI systems through increased anthropomorph-ism and social factors can be bene fi cial (Ho et al. 2018).”
Tell me more! assessing interactions with social robots from speech
Laban, G., George, J.-N., Morrison, V., & Cross, E. S. (2020) · Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics · doi:10.1515/pjbr-2021-0011 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Dehnert, M., & Mongeau, P. A. (2022) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1093/hcr/hqac006 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Lin, J.-S., & Wu, L. (2022) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107488 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Croes, E. A. J., Antheunis, M. L., van der Lee, C., & de Wit, J. (2024) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwae016 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Ju, J., Meng, Q., Sun, F., Liu, L., & Singh, S. R. (2023) · Government Information Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.giq.2022.101785 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
The Illusion of Empathy? Notes on Displays of Emotion in Human-Computer Interaction
Cuadra, A., Wang, M., Stein, L. A., Jung, M. F., Dell, N., Estrin, D., & Landay, J. A. (2024) · Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3613904.3642336 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Chen, V., Le, H. T., & Tran, S. T. T. (2021) · Internet Research · doi:10.1108/intr-11-2019-0447 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Is chatting with a sophisticated chatbot as good as chatting online or FTF with a stranger?
Drouin, M., Sprecher, S., Nicola, R., & Perkins, T. (2022) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.107100 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Dekkal, M., Arcand, M., Tep, S. P., Rajaobelina, L., & Ricard, L. (2023) · Journal of Financial Services Marketing · doi:10.1057/s41264-023-00230-y · Cited by 75 · see citing works
“Importantly, not all consumers find it natural to interact with a robot, with some reporting that they find the experience creepy (Ho et al. 2018).”
Opening Space for Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Issues in Human-Machine Communication
Fortunati, L., & Edwards, A. P. (2020) · Human-Machine Communication · doi:10.30658/hmc.1.1 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
“As Ho, Hancock, and Miner (2018) recently demonstrated, people disclosing personal information garnered the same emotional, relational, and psychological benefits whether they thought their partner was a chatbot or a person.”
BackgroundFostering positive customer attitudes and usage intentions for scheduling services via chatbots
Maar, D., Besson, E., & Kéfi, H. (2022) · Journal of service management · doi:10.1108/josm-06-2021-0237 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Dynamic mechanism of social bots interfering with public opinion in network
Cheng, C. C. L., Luo, Y., & Yu, C. B. (2020) · Physica A Statistical Mechanics and its Applications · doi:10.1016/j.physa.2020.124163 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
What makes you attached to social companion AI? A two-stage exploratory mixed-method study
Hu, D., Lan, Y., Yan, H., & Chen, C. W. (2025) · International Journal of Information Management · doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2025.102890 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Lefkeli, D., Karataş, M., & Gürhan-Canli, Z. (2024) · International Journal of Research in Marketing · doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.08.011 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Park, N., Jang, K., Cho, S., & Choi, J. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106795 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Strategies for Fostering a Genuine Feeling of Connection in Technologically Mediated Systems
Stepanova, E. R., Desnoyers-Stewart, J., Höök, K., & Riecke, B. E. (2022) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3491102.3517580 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
“One-sided self-disclosure can be useful, as demonstrated through self-disclosure with chatbots [69].”
MethodMen, L. R., Zhou, A. Y., & Tsai, W. S. (2022) · Journal of Public Relations Research · doi:10.1080/1062726x.2022.2068553 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Chatbots to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health: Realist Synthesis
Mills, R., Mangone, E., Lesh, N. B., Mohan, D., & Baraitser, P. (2023) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/46761 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“It seems that both perceived anonymity [43] and reduced fear of negative or judgmental responses are important for disclosure [40].”
Li, B., Yao, R., & Nan, Y. (2023) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.2218 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
“The FAIC play the roles of companions, friends, or even romantic mates (Ho et al., 2018) due to expressing humanlike sympathy and empathy (Liu & Sundar, 2018; Zhou et al., 2018).”
BackgroundPark, S., Thieme, A., Han, J., Lee, S., Rhee, W., & Suh, B. (2021) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3461778.3462143 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“While others have used Wizard-of-Oz [33] for a social setting of expressive writing, we are keen to investigate a chatbot interaction with the current state-of-the-art technology to evaluate social disclosure with AI in a more technologically realistic setting.”
Validity of Chatbot Use for Mental Health Assessment: Experimental Study
Schick, A., Feine, J., Morana, S., Maedche, A., & Reininghaus, U. (2022) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/28082 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“As the assessment modes between conditions did not differ, the results show that the application of a chatbot results in valid responses, regardless of whether the data are immediately reviewed and evaluated by a human actor [70,83].”
BackgroundBendig, E., Erb, B., Schulze-Thuesing, L., & Baumeister, H. (2019) · Verhaltenstherapie · doi:10.1159/000499492 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“Ein Beispiel für ein Paradigma, das in diesem Forschungskontext aktuell viel Aufmerksamkeit erfährt, ist das therapeutische Schreiben [Bendig et al., 2018; Ho et al., 2018; Tielman et al., 2017].”
BackgroundThe AI empathy effect: a mechanism of emotional contagion
Liu, W., Zhang, S., Zhang, T., Gu, Q., Wei, H., & Zhu, Y. (2024) · Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management · doi:10.1080/19368623.2024.2315954 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“If a robot’s response to a human includes emotional disclosure (Ho et al., 2018) or emojis (Beattie et al., 2020), chatbots can emotionally act like human staffs (Pentina et al., 2023).”
BackgroundPani, B., Crawford, J., & Allen, K.-A. (2024) · Applications of Generative AI · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-46238-2_13 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Papneja, H., & Yadav, N. (2024) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/s00779-024-01823-7 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Zhang, X., Chen, A. L., Piao, X., Yu, M., Zhang, Y., & Zhang, L. (2024) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104501 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ho, A., Hancock, J., & Miner, A. S.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ho, Annabell
- Venue
- Journal of Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-05-30
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 712-733
- ISSN
- 0021-9916 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2466
- PMC
- PMC6074615
- OpenAlex
- W2806569034
- Cited by
- 629
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 153 · 2025: 109 · 2024: 103 · 2023: 74 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 39.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Communication (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- National Center for Advancing Translational Science (KL2TR001083, UL1TR001085)
- Clinical and Translational Science (KL2TR001083, UL1TR001085)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Keywords
- self-disclosure, chatbots, human-computer interaction, emotional disclosure, interpersonal relationships
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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