PreprintCited by 128Digital Mental Health InterventionsSocial Robot Interaction and HRIEmotion and Mood Recognition

Influence of Rapport and Social Presence with an Ai Psychotherapy Chatbot on Users’ Self-Disclosure

Open access
Lee, Jieon, Lee, Jae-gil, Lee, Daeho·2022·International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Self-disclosure lowers one’s stress and anxiety and benefits their mental health. However, revealing one’s personal and unprotected information can be risky, and such a risk causes major practical difficulties in counseling services. People are reluctant to expose themselves because they are concerned about being negatively evaluated and judged by others, even professional counselors. Accordingly, this study designs and implements a fully automated text-based counseling chatbot that alleviates people’s self-disclosure burden. This chatbot is based on rapport-facilitating dialogue, which creates a mutually stable and favorable relationship between two interlocutors and eventually encourages people to self-disclose. Using 303 nonclinical samples, this study examines how rapport is activated between a user and the counseling chatbot and confirms whether it lowers psychological barriers to being judged and encourages self-disclosure. The findings offer practical implications for artificial intelligence (AI) psychotherapy service developers to design a counseling program to encourage people to reveal their mental issues without hesitation.

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Crossref · 10.2139/ssrn.4063508

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72 of 72 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Authors
Lee, J., Lee, J.-G., & Lee, D.
Affiliations
  • Hallym University (KR)
  • Sungkyunkwan University (KR)
Corresponding author
Lee, Jae-gil
Venue
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2022
Volume
40
Issue
7
Pages
1620-1631
ISSN
1044-7318 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4309759713
Cited by
127
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 53 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 5
FWCI
16.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Emotion and Mood Recognition
Keywords
self-disclosure, rapport, social presence, fear of negative evaluation, mental health, chatbot design

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