Effect of AI chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on willingness to donate: the mediation of humanness and social presence

Abstract

This paper explores the effect of chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on willingness to donate (WTD) to a fundraising project and the psychological mechanism in the relationship. In a 3 (information-only vs. cognitive empathy vs. affective empathy) × 2 (chatbot vs. human identity) experiment, 496 US adults had a conversation about a fundraising event with one of six artificial intelligence-powered chatbots. The results revealed that neither chatbot empathy nor identity disclosure has a significant effect on WTD, rejecting the hypotheses. However, the data supported a significant interaction effect between chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on WTD. Moreover, the results suggested that the interaction effect between chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on WTD would be mediated through human likeness and social presence. This study suggests how empathy and human identity of chatbots should be applied with care to avoid the uncanny valley effect.