Chatbots’ Empathetic Conversations and Responses: A Qualitative Study of Help‑Seeking Queries on Depressive Moods Across 8 Commercial Conversational Agents
Our findings reveal a mixed landscape in the emotional support provided by CAs. While some social chatbots delivered empathetic responses that fostered deeper user engagement, most commercial chatbots offered merely informative replies to users' help-seeking inputs. Recognizing that users seek support from chatbots, we recommend equipping next-generation CAs with capabilities grounded in therapeutic communication, such as empathetic responses.
Authors
- Hyojin Chin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4773-9518)
- Gumhee Baek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1999-0158)
- Meeyoung Cha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4085-9648)
- Chiyoung Cha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0115-1348)
Institutions
- Ewha Womans University (KR)
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- Gyeongsang National University (KR)
- Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JMIR Formative Research
- Published
- 2025-09-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2196/71538
- Primary Topic
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00