ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Human Factors and Digital Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1655860
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotional Intelligence AI in Mental HealthView all 7 articles
Alter egos alter engagement: perspective-taking can improve disclosure quantity and depth to AI chatbots in promoting mental wellbeing
Provisionally accepted
Christopher You*
Rashi Ghosh
Melissa Vilaro
Roshan Venkatakrishnan
Rohith Venkatakrishnan
Andrew Maxim
Xuening Peng
Danish Tamboli
Benjamin Lok- University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
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Emotionally intelligent AI chatbots are increasingly used to support college students' mental wellbeing. Yet, adoption remains limited, as users often hesitate to open up due to emotional barriers and vulnerability. Improving chatbot design may reduce some barriers, but users still bear the emotional burden of opening up and overcoming vulnerability. This study explores whether perspective-taking can support user disclosure by addressing underlying psychological barriers.In this between-subjects study, 96 students engaged in a brief reflective conversation with an embodied AI chatbot. Perspective-Taking participants defined and imagined a designated other's perspective and responded from that viewpoint. Control participants provided selfinformation and responded from their own perspective. Disclosure was measured by quantity (word count) and depth (information, thoughts, and feelings). Additional immediate measures captured readiness, intentions for mental wellbeing, and attitudes toward the chatbot and intervention.Results: Perspective-Taking participants disclosed significantly greater quantity, overall depth, thoughts depth, and frequencies of high disclosures of thoughts and information. Both groups showed significant improvements in readiness and intention to address mental wellbeing, with no difference in improvement magnitude. However, Control participants reported significantly lower (better) skepticism towards the intervention and greater increases in willingness to engage with AI chatbots comparatively.Discussion: This study highlights how perspective-taking and distancing may facilitate greater disclosure to AI chatbots supporting mental wellbeing. We explore the nature of these disclosures 1 You et al.and how perspective-taking may drive readiness and enrich the substance of disclosures. These findings suggest a way for chatbots to evoke deeper reflection and effective support while potentially reducing the need to share sensitive personal self-information directly with generative AI systems.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, Chatbot, Mental wellbeing, Perspective-taking, Disclosure, emotional expression
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 You, Ghosh, Vilaro, Venkatakrishnan, Venkatakrishnan, Maxim, Peng, Tamboli and Lok. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christopher You, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
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