Should We Make the Bots More Human?

Résumé fourni par la source

This chapter provides a conceptual synthesis of anthropomorphism in customer-facing conversational agents. It examines how humanlike chatbot cues shape customer perceptions, behaviours, and relationship outcomes in conversational marketing. Drawing on anthropomorphism theory, the Computers Are Social Actors perspective, social presence theory, relationship marketing, and service-dominant logic, the chapter develops a framework linking design cues to psychological mechanisms and customer responses. It argues that chatbot humanness is not a universal design advantage but a context-dependent resource. Humanlike cues can support trust, engagement, disclosure, satisfaction, intentions, and relationship quality when they fit the task, journey stage, capability, privacy context, and transparency. The same cues can intensify creepiness, privacy concern, anger, blame, resistance, and disappointment when they inflate expectations or obscure machine agency. The chapter concludes with guidance and future research directions for calibrating chatbot humanness across marketing and service contexts.