The DOI matches its Crossref record; 75 of the 77 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
When the Social Becomes Non-Human: Young People's Perception of Social Support in Chatbots
Open accessAbstract
Although social support is important for health and well-being, many young people are hesitant to reach out for support. The emerging uptake of chatbots for social and emotional purposes entails opportunities and concerns regarding non-human agents as sources of social support. To explore this, we invited 16 participants (16–21 years) to use and reflect on chatbots as sources of social support. Our participants first interacted with a chatbot for mental health (Woebot) for two weeks. Next, they participated in individual in-depth interviews. As part of the interview session, they were presented with a chatbot prototype providing information to young people. Two months later, the participants reported on their continued use of Woebot. Our findings provide in-depth knowledge about how young people may experience various types of social support—appraisal, informational, emotional, and instrumental support—from chatbots. We summarize implications for theory, practice, and future research.
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In the citing paper
“Justification for focusing on the young population is rooted in prior research demonstrating distinctive preferences, attitudes, and utilization patterns compared to adults17,18.”
From Use of automated conversational agents in improving young population mental health: a scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [18]
In the citing paper
“They use these systems for emotional, informational, and appraisal support and treat them as non-judgmental spaces to organize feelings and reflect on concerns [17].”
From Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives (2026) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“Young people describe chatbots as emotionally supportive, non-judgmental, and safe for disclosure, which encourages deeper feelings of connection [18].”
From Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives (2026) · cites this paper as [18]
Citations
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Result
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Artificial Intelligence-Based Chatbots for Promoting Health Behavioral Changes: Systematic Review.
Aggarwal, A., Tam, C. C., Wu, D., Li, X., & Qiao, S. (2023) · Journal of medical Internet research · doi:10.2196/40789 · Cited by 683
My AI Friend: How Users of a Social Chatbot Understand Their Human–AI Friendship
Brandtzaeg, P. B., Skjuve, M., & Følstad, A. (2022) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1093/hcr/hqac008 · Cited by 490
Self-citationHaque, M. D. R., & Rubya, S. (2023) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/44838 · Cited by 404
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
“Such facilitation of self-disclosure might be further strengthened in HCR, and self-disclosure is acknowledged as essential for the formation of human – robot relationships (Kanda et al., 2007; Martelaro et al., 2016) and HCRs (Croes & Antheunis, 2021; Skjuve et al., 2021).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citationChin, H., Song, H., Baek, G., Shin, M., Jung, C., Cha, M., Choi, J., & Cha, C. (2023) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/51712 · Cited by 213
Metadata
- Authors
- Bae Brandtzæg, P. B., Skjuve, M., Kristoffer Dysthe, K. K., & Følstad, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Oslo, Norway
- SINTEF Digital (NO)
- SINTEF (NO)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-05-06
- Pages
- 1-13
- OpenAlex
- W3162547504
- Cited by
- 153
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 35.43
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Norwegian Research Council (262848)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › AI in Service Interactions
- Keywords
- chatbots, social support, youth, Woebot, mental health, non-human actors, appraisal support, information support, emotional support, instrumental support, help-seeking, chatbot prototype, well-being
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