The Role of Chatbots' Anthropomorphism to Control and Mitigate Risks of User Suspicion and Persuasion Knowledge

The present study has extended the literature on social response theory and para-social interaction from merely behavioral intentions of the users to actual demonstration of the desired behavior. For instance, the user’s actual buying or using behavior is shaped through perceived anthropomorphism of Chatbots and their willingness to self-disclosure. Provided these factors are there, the user shall use the Chatbots for purchase of goods and services. The relationships are moderated by another external factor called persuasion knowledge when users and customers view brand and their associated Chatbots with suspicious and look for actual benefit of the brand and compare with promised promotion. Impact of persuasion knowledge has proven on relationship between self-disclosure and actual usage, whereas it did not moderate relation between perceived anthropomorphism and actual usage significantly which means that anthropomorphic characteristics can control the adverse impact of persuasion knowledge and change the decision in favor. This outcome is of much significance for businesses and industry. Future research studies may test other moderators like gender of customer and gender personality of Chatbot, income level of customer, fun orientation, and personality characteristic of both human users and chatbots. This is a quantities research study and a self-administered questionnaire survey is conducted. The sample of the study constituted on users of e-commerce at famous e-commerce platforms in Pakistan, who were recruited for the study through convenient sampling method. Smart PLS 4.0 has been employed for data analysis and hypotheses testing. Key Words Chatbots, Customer Behavior, Perceived Anthropomorphism, Self-Disclosure, and Persuasion Knowledge.