In fact, sometimes consumers don't want to talk to a real person when shopping online, a new study suggests.
In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it's not human at all.
In a new study, Ohio State University researchers found that people prefer to interact with chatbots when they feel embarrassed about what they're buying online — such as anti-diarrheal drugs or, for some, Skin care products.
“In general, research shows that people would rather interact with a human customer service agent than a chatbot,” said Gianna Jin, who conducted the study as a doctoral student at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business. led by
“But we found that when people worry that others are judging them, this trend reverses and they feel less embarrassed interacting with a chatbot than with a human. “
The study was recently published. Journal of Consumer Psychology Study co-authors Jesse Walker, assistant professor, and Rebecca Walker Rizek, professor, both of Ohio State's Fisher College of Marketing.
“Chatbots are becoming more and more common as customer service agents, and most states don't require companies to disclose that they use them,” Reczek said. “But it may be necessary for companies to tell users if they're dealing with a chatbot.”
New research explores what happens when consumers experience what psychologists call self-presentational anxiety — it's when people worry that their behavior and actions might be influenced by others. How do you understand them? Buying certain products can trigger these concerns.
In one of the five studies he was part of. Journal of Consumer Psychology In the paper, researchers asked 386 undergraduate students to imagine buying anti-diarrhea or hay fever medicine. They were given a choice between two online drugstores, one that uses chatbots and the other that uses customer service agents.
When participants were told they were buying hay fever medicine, which most people don't feel embarrassed about, 91% said they would use a store that had a human service agent. But when they were buying anti-diarrhea medicine, 81% chose a store with chatbots.
But this is only the beginning of the story. Researchers found in other studies that it mattered how human chatbots appeared and acted on screen.
In another study, participants were asked to imagine buying an antidiarrheal drug from an online drugstore. They were then shown one of three live chat icons: one was a chatbot with an icon that was just a speech bubble, with no human features. The other was a chatbot with a human cartoon. And the third includes a profile picture of a real clearly human woman.
Both chatbots clearly identified themselves as chatbots to the participants — but the cartoon one of a real person used more emotional language during the exchange, such as “I'm so excited to see you!”
The results showed that participants were more willing to receive information about the embarrassing product from the two chatbots than from a human. But the effect was not as strong on the chatbot with a human cartoon avatar that used more emotional language than the other chatbot.
Walker said the fact that the chatbot had a cartoon human avatar and used emotive language may have made those in the study feel uncomfortable and less willing to interact — though They were told it was a chatbot.
“It was as if the participants were saving themselves from embarrassment by assuming that the chatbot could be human,” Walker said.
In another study, Jin actually designed a chatbot and engaged participants in a real back-and-forth conversation. The participants in this study were chosen because they all agreed that they wanted to make a good impression on others with their skin.
In other words, they had self-presentation concerns related to their skin and may have been interested in purchasing skin care products because they were embarrassed about their skin. Because of this, the researchers believed that they would respond more positively to clearly identified chatbots.
Study participants were told whether they were interacting with an agent of a skincare brand and whether they were speaking with a chatbot or a customer service representative. Participants answered several questions, including one that asked them if they would like to provide their email address to receive a free sample of the brand.
As the researchers hypothesized, participants were more likely to provide their email address if they thought they were interacting with a chatbot (62%) than a human (38%).
In this study, among others, researchers asked questions designed to explore why participants preferred chatbots when they had self-presentation concerns.
Walker said the study's findings show that chatbots reduce embarrassment because users feel that chatbots are unable to sense emotions and make judgments about people.
“Consumers feel less embarrassed because chatbots don't have the level of consciousness and ability to make decisions,” he said.
Jin, now an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the findings suggest that companies need to pay attention to the role of chatbots in their business.
Managers may not realize the importance of using chatbots when they have concerns about presenting themselves to customers, he said.
And as conversational AI gets better, it may be harder for consumers to tell the difference between chatbots and human service agents, Reczek said. This can be a problem for companies whose customers may prefer to interact with chatbots due to self-presentation concerns and fear of embarrassment.
“It will be even more important for firms to clearly disclose that they use chatbots if they can make consumers feel like they're interacting with a bot,” Reczek said.