Make your own: The Potential of Chatbot Customization for the Development of User Trust

Rebecca Wald, Evelien Heijselaar, Tibor Bosse

Abstract: Interacting with chatbots has become ubiquitous nowadays. Nevertheless, conversational agents often remain unable to reliably succeed in social contexts, which negatively influences users’ experience and prevents them from exploiting the technology's full potential. To improve user experience and subsequent trust-formation in chatbots only very little attention has been paid to the active involvement of the user and with that to customization options. Employing a preregistered experimental 1x2 between-subjects study design (N = 171) this study explores an alternative approach to the typical one-chatbot-fits-all solution and investigates the potential of active user-based chatbot customization for the development of trust in chatbots. While customization had no direct effect on trust, anthropomorphism was identified as a significant mediator. The chatbot's interpersonal communicational competence was not affected by customization, yet it did predict trust. Exploratory analyses of participants’ feedback point towards the importance of individual differences between users and generally show a positive impact of customization on the overall chatbot experience.