BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Science
This article is part of the Research TopicHuman Reactions to Artificial Intelligence with Anthropomorphic FeaturesView all 12 articles
Why should I use social chatbots? On potential users' acceptance and the role of anthropomorphism
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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Introduction: Chatbots can provide task-related services but also act as empathetic conversation partners allowing for social interactions. Focusing on such social chatbots, we considered several theoretical frameworks to investigate potential users’ intention to use social chatbots and focused on the role of anthropomorphism. Method: Based on an online survey with 180 participants, we examined the role of 14 personal characteristics in potential users’ acceptance of social chatbots based on bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis. Based on a subsequent within-subjects experiment and repeated measures analysis of variance, we also investigated differences in the intention of potential users to use more human-like versus less human-like social chatbots regarding their avatar and name. Results: Most personal characteristics were significantly correlated with participants’ intention to use social chatbots. The multiple regression model explained about 75% of variance in participants’ intention and identified experience and attitude regarding social chatbots as particularly important personal characteristics. Further, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control regarding social chatbots as well as social support showed specifically strong bivariate correlations. The experimental part revealed that more human-like social chatbots received slightly yet significantly higher intention ratings. Discussion: We identified relevant personal characteristics for potential users’ intention to use social chatbots and found that potential users prefer using social chatbots with a more human-like appearance. While anthropomorphism can affect potential users’ intention to use social chatbots, other aspects seem more important. Overall, our findings provide valuable starting points to better understand why people intend to use social chatbots.
Keywords: Anthropomorphism, artificial intelligence, Attachment, social chatbots, social support, technology acceptance, Trust, usage intention
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Rüth, Eifler and Schneider. 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: Marco Rüth
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