The Impact of a Chatbot's Ephemerality-Framing on Self-Disclosure Perceptions

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Cox, Samuel Rhys, Jacobsen, Rune Møberg, van Berkel, Niels
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Cox, Samuel Rhys
Jacobsen, Rune Møberg
van Berkel, Niels
author_facet Cox, Samuel Rhys
Jacobsen, Rune Møberg
van Berkel, Niels
contents Self-disclosure, the sharing of one's thoughts and feelings, is affected by the perceived relationship between individuals. While chatbots are increasingly used for self-disclosure, the impact of a chatbot's framing on users' self-disclosure remains under-explored. We investigated how a chatbot's description of its relationship with users, particularly in terms of ephemerality, affects self-disclosure. Specifically, we compared a Familiar chatbot, presenting itself as a companion remembering past interactions, with a Stranger chatbot, presenting itself as a new, unacquainted entity in each conversation. In a mixed factorial design, participants engaged with either the Familiar or Stranger chatbot in two sessions across two days, with one conversation focusing on Emotional- and another Factual-disclosure. When Emotional-disclosure was sought in the first chatting session, Stranger-condition participants felt more comfortable self-disclosing. However, when Factual-disclosure was sought first, these differences were replaced by more enjoyment among Familiar-condition participants. Qualitative findings showed Stranger afforded anonymity and reduced judgement, whereas Familiar sometimes felt intrusive unless rapport was built via low-risk Factual-disclosure.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_20464
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Impact of a Chatbot's Ephemerality-Framing on Self-Disclosure Perceptions
Cox, Samuel Rhys
Jacobsen, Rune Møberg
van Berkel, Niels
Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
Self-disclosure, the sharing of one's thoughts and feelings, is affected by the perceived relationship between individuals. While chatbots are increasingly used for self-disclosure, the impact of a chatbot's framing on users' self-disclosure remains under-explored. We investigated how a chatbot's description of its relationship with users, particularly in terms of ephemerality, affects self-disclosure. Specifically, we compared a Familiar chatbot, presenting itself as a companion remembering past interactions, with a Stranger chatbot, presenting itself as a new, unacquainted entity in each conversation. In a mixed factorial design, participants engaged with either the Familiar or Stranger chatbot in two sessions across two days, with one conversation focusing on Emotional- and another Factual-disclosure. When Emotional-disclosure was sought in the first chatting session, Stranger-condition participants felt more comfortable self-disclosing. However, when Factual-disclosure was sought first, these differences were replaced by more enjoyment among Familiar-condition participants. Qualitative findings showed Stranger afforded anonymity and reduced judgement, whereas Familiar sometimes felt intrusive unless rapport was built via low-risk Factual-disclosure.
title The Impact of a Chatbot's Ephemerality-Framing on Self-Disclosure Perceptions
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.20464