Exploring Empathy in Human - Chatbot interactions: Addressing, Verbal Abuse, and Gender Dynamics

Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the empathy between human chatbot interactions amongcomputer science students at Uppsala University, Sweden. This was done by exploring howparticipants perceive anthropomorphic chatbots as machines or humans, the existence of verbalabuse during human chatbot interactions, and the expectation of chatbot helpfulness dependingon gender dynamics. A semi-structured interview methodology with five students was conductedfor qualitative data collection. The collected data was manually analyzed using thematic analysis.The results of this study found that there is empathy in human chatbot interaction, regardless ofwhether participants perceive anthropomorphic chatbots as humans or machines. However, thelevel of empathy is generally low as participants frustrate when they are dissatisfied with theresponse of chatbots and exit the chatbots without expressing their frustration, and they usuallyforget their frustration and come again with other questions another time. The study also showsthat participants might expect more help and politeness if chatbots are more likely to be female.