Addressing Popular Concerns Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination with Natural Language Argumentation Dialogues

Lisa A. Chalaguine, Anthony Hunter

Abstract: Chatbots have the potential of being used as dialogical argumentation systems for behaviour change applications. They thereby offer a cost-effective and scalable alternative to in-person consultations with health professionals that users could engage in from the comfort of their own home. During events like the global COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more important than usual that people are well informed and make conscious decisions that benefit themselves. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a prime example of a behaviour that benefits the individual, as well as society as a whole. In this paper, we present a chatbot that engages in dialogues with users who do not want to get vaccinated, with the goal to persuade them to change their stance and get a vaccine. The chatbot is equipped with a small repository of arguments that it uses to counter user arguments on why the user is reluctant to get a vaccine. We evaluate our chatbot in a study with participants.