Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement

Joonas Moilanen; Aku Visuri; Sharadhi Alape Suryanarayana; Andy Alorwu; Koji Yatani; Simo Hosio

doi:10.1145/3568444.3568464

Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement

Joonas Moilanen
, Aku Visuri
, Sharadhi Alape Suryanarayana
, Andy Alorwu
, Koji Yatani
, Simo Hosio

University of Oulu
The University of Tokyo

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is seen as humanity's current best bet to solve the looming crisis in healthcare. Conversational Agents, or chatbots, rely on advances in AI and are increasingly investigated in the context of digital mental health care. Given how they are end-user-facing and interactive communication tools, the user engagement felt when interacting with the bots is a critical consideration. In this work, we examine the effects of chatbot personalities on the experienced user engagement with the bot. We employed personalities that rely on the Big-5 Personality Theory. Among other findings, our quantitative results indicate that a highly conscientious chatbot is likely to foster the highest user engagement. Our qualitative and content analysis also reveals desired and undesired personality features for future mental health chatbots. We discuss our findings in light of digital mental health and propose novel research directions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia
Editors	Tanja Doring, Susanne Boll, Ashley Colley, Augusto Esteves, Joao Guerreiro
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	138-150
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450398213
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3568444.3568464
State	Published - 27 Nov 2022
Externally published	Yes
Event	21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, MUM 2022 - Lisbon, Portugal Duration: 27 Nov 2022 → 30 Nov 2022

Publication series

Name	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference	21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, MUM 2022
Country/Territory	Portugal
City	Lisbon
Period	27/11/22 → 30/11/22

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Owner/Author.

Funding

This research is connected to the GenZ strategic profiling project at the University of Oulu, supported by the Academy of Finland (project number 318930) and CRITICAL (Academy of Finland Strategic Research, 335729). Part of the work was also carried out with the support of Biocenter Oulu, spearhead of project ICON.

Funders	Funder number
CRITICAL	335729
Academy of Finland	318930
Biocenter, University of Oulu

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

big five
chatbot
conversational agent
mental health
personality
self-care
user engagement

Access to Document

10.1145/3568444.3568464

Cite this

Moilanen, J., Visuri, A., Suryanarayana, S. A., Alorwu, A., Yatani, K., & Hosio, S. (2022). Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement. In T. Doring, S. Boll, A. Colley, A. Esteves, & J. Guerreiro (Eds.), Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (pp. 138-150). (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3568444.3568464

Moilanen, Joonas ; Visuri, Aku ; Suryanarayana, Sharadhi Alape et al. / Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement. Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. editor / Tanja Doring ; Susanne Boll ; Ashley Colley ; Augusto Esteves ; Joao Guerreiro. Association for Computing Machinery, 2022. pp. 138-150 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).

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abstract = "Artificial Intelligence is seen as humanity's current best bet to solve the looming crisis in healthcare. Conversational Agents, or chatbots, rely on advances in AI and are increasingly investigated in the context of digital mental health care. Given how they are end-user-facing and interactive communication tools, the user engagement felt when interacting with the bots is a critical consideration. In this work, we examine the effects of chatbot personalities on the experienced user engagement with the bot. We employed personalities that rely on the Big-5 Personality Theory. Among other findings, our quantitative results indicate that a highly conscientious chatbot is likely to foster the highest user engagement. Our qualitative and content analysis also reveals desired and undesired personality features for future mental health chatbots. We discuss our findings in light of digital mental health and propose novel research directions.",

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Moilanen, J, Visuri, A, Suryanarayana, SA, Alorwu, A, Yatani, K & Hosio, S 2022, Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement. in T Doring, S Boll, A Colley, A Esteves & J Guerreiro (eds), Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 138-150, 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, MUM 2022, Lisbon, Portugal, 27/11/22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3568444.3568464

Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement. / Moilanen, Joonas; Visuri, Aku; Suryanarayana, Sharadhi Alape et al.
Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. ed. / Tanja Doring; Susanne Boll; Ashley Colley; Augusto Esteves; Joao Guerreiro. Association for Computing Machinery, 2022. p. 138-150 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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Moilanen J, Visuri A, Suryanarayana SA, Alorwu A, Yatani K, Hosio S. Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement. In Doring T, Boll S, Colley A, Esteves A, Guerreiro J, editors, Proceedings of MUM 2022, the 21st International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. Association for Computing Machinery. 2022. p. 138-150. (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). doi: 10.1145/3568444.3568464

Measuring the Effect of Mental Health Chatbot Personality on User Engagement

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this