ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1538387
This article is part of the Research TopicApplication of chatbot Natural Language Processing models to psychotherapy and behavioral mood healthView all 12 articles
Attitudes Towards AI Counseling: The Existence of Perceptual Fear in Affecting Perceived Chatbot Support Quality
Provisionally accepted
- The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Introduction: Due to the shortage of financial and human resources in the local mental health industry, AI counseling presents itself as a cost-effective solution to address this limitation. However, fear and concerns about AI may hinder the adoption of AI in counseling. This study examined the relationships between individuals' prior AI exposures, AI anxiety levels, attitudes towards AI, and their perceived support satisfaction with the counseling chatbot.Methods: With a simulated counseling chatbot developed using Azure OpenAI GPT-4 model (1106preview version) and a sample of 110 local Chinese in Hong Kong, this study explored the potential existence of perceptual fear in affecting people's perceived support quality of the chatbot by manipulating the informed perceptual labels-Told-Human (told to be receiving human counseling) and Told-AI (told to be receiving AI counseling).Results: Perceptual fear of AI adversely affected participants' perceived support quality of the counseling chatbot, t(108) = 2.64, p = .009, BCa 95% CI = [0.186, 1.342], with Hedges' correction of 1.55. While the significant reduction in stress levels demonstrated the chatbot's implicit capability in providing emotional support (p = .03), participants showed explicit reservations about its helpfulness.Discussion: This study highlights the importance of accounting for the influence of individuals' preexisting beliefs on the perceived support quality of counseling chatbots. Future cross-cultural studies with a larger sample may shed more light by investigating dynamic intervention approaches and conducting sentiment and thematic analyses of client-chatbot conversations.
Keywords: attitudes towards artificial intelligence, AI anxiety, chatbot counseling, Emotional support, perceptual fear, confirmation bias, Perceived support quality
Received: 03 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Keung and So. 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: Wing Man Keung, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
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