Will you donate money to a chatbot? The effect of chatbot anthropomorphic features and persuasion strategies on willingness to donate

2024-12-28

AI Summary

This study investigates the causal effects of chatbot anthropomorphism (via naming vs. narrative) and persuasion strategy (affective vs. logical appeals) on public willingness to make charitable donations. Method: A 2×2 between-subjects experiment (N=76) employed validated scales measuring perceived anthropomorphism, attitude toward the AI agent, and donation intention, analyzed via ANOVA and mediation analysis. Contribution/Results: Contrary to prevailing assumptions, anthropomorphism significantly degraded users’ attitudes toward the AI agent and failed to enhance donation intent. In contrast, the “non-anthropomorphic + logical persuasion” condition yielded the highest donation likelihood and aligned best with human expectations of rational, transparent AI communication. These findings challenge dominant anthropomorphism-centered design paradigms in charitable AI interfaces and provide empirical support for regulatory emphasis on AI identity consistency and transparency.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

This work investigates the causal mechanism behind the effect of chatbot personification and persuasion strategies on users' perceptions and donation likelihood. In a 2 (personified vs. non-personified chatbot) x 2 (emotional vs. logical persuasion strategy) between-subjects experiment (N=76), participants engaged with a chatbot that represented a non-profit charitable organization. The results suggest that interaction with a personified chatbot evokes perceived anthropomorphism; however, it does not elicit greater willingness to donate. In fact, we found that commonly used anthropomorphic features, like name and narrative, led to negative attitudes toward an AI agent in the donation context. Our results showcase a preference for non-personified chatbots paired with logical persuasion appeal, emphasizing the significance of consistency in chatbot interaction, mirroring human-human engagement. We discuss the importance of moving from exploring the common scenario of a chatbot with machine identity vs. a chatbot with human identity in light of the recent regulations of AI systems.

Problem

• Chatbot Persuasiveness
• Donation Intentions
• Human-likeness

Innovation

• Human-like Chatbots
• Persuasive Strategies
• Donation Intention