When the Social Becomes Non-Human: Young People’s Perception of Social Support in Chatbots
Chapter
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3047512Utgivelsesdato
2021Metadata
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Originalversjon
CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2021, 1-13. 10.1145/3411764.3445318Sammendrag
Although social support is important for health and well-being, many young people are hesitant to reach out for support. The emerging uptake of chatbots for social and emotional purposes entails opportunities and concerns regarding non-human agents as sources of social support. To explore this, we invited 16 participants (16–21 years) to use and refect on chatbots as sources of social support. Our participants frst interacted with a chatbot for mental health (Woebot) for two weeks. Next, they participated in individual in-depth interviews. As part of the interview session, they were presented with a chatbot prototype providing information to young people. Two months later, the participants reported on their continued use of Woebot. Our fndings provide in-depth knowledge about how young people may experience various types of social support—appraisal, informational, emotional, and instrumental support—from chatbots. We summarize implications for theory, practice, and future research.