In customer service, emotional expressions by chatbots are considered a promising direction to improve customer experience. However, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of how and when chatbots' emotional expressions improve customer attitudes. Although chatbots' emotional expressions of care and concern may feel inauthentic to customers in the inferential path, which can negatively affects customer attitudes, we propose that the positive effect of the affective reactions path can result in a positive effect on customer attitude based on the dual-path view of Emotions as Social Information (EASI). The relative strengths of the two EASI paths can be moderated, and we explored the moderating effects of rational thinking styles (information processing in EASI) and beliefs in computer emotion (perceived appropriateness in EASI). According to EASI, situation can affect the meaning of emotions, so we conducted experiments in two situations. With chatbot identity disclosure, we found that the chatbot's emotional expressions reduce customers' perceived authenticity (reflecting the inferential path in EASI) but ultimately improve customer attitudes. Belief in computer emotions and rational thinking style moderated the negative relationship between emotional expressions and authenticity. With chatbot identity non-disclosure, the chatbot's emotional expressions still improve customer attitudes but with no effect on authenticity. Because there is high likelihood of chatbot identities being discovered by customers, this finding of the moderating effect of perceived humanness on authenticity is highly relevant. Our findings make important contributions to research on computer emotion and service authenticity.

中文翻译：

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客户服务聊天机器人表达关心和关心的情感：尽管被认为不真实，但仍改善了客户态度


在客户服务中，聊天机器人的情感表达被认为是改善客户体验的一个有前途的方向。然而，对于聊天机器人的情感表达如何以及何时改善客户态度缺乏全面的了解。尽管在推理路径中，聊天机器人对关心和关心的情感表达可能会让客户感觉不真实，这会对客户态度产生负面影响，但我们认为，基于双重因素，情感反应路径的积极作用可以对客户态度产生积极影响。 -情绪作为社会信息（EASI）的路径视图。两条 EASI 路径的相对优势是可以调节的，我们探讨了理性思维方式（EASI 中的信息处理）和计算机情感信念（EASI 中的感知适当性）的调节作用。根据EASI的说法，情境会影响情绪的含义，因此我们在两种情境下进行了实验。通过聊天机器人身份披露，我们发现聊天机器人的情绪表达降低了客户感知的真实性（反映了 EASI 中的推理路径），但最终改善了客户的态度。对计算机情感和理性思维方式的信仰调节了情感表达与真实性之间的负相关关系。在聊天机器人身份保密的情况下，聊天机器人的情感表达仍然可以改善客户的态度，但不会影响真实性。由于聊天机器人的身份很可能被客户发现，因此感知人性对真实性的调节作用的这一发现具有高度相关性。我们的研究结果对计算机情感和服务真实性的研究做出了重要贡献。