Users’ Information Disclosure Behaviors during Interactions with Chatbots: The Effect of Information Disclosure Nudges

Abstract

Drawing from the tension between a company’s desire for customer information to tailor experiences and a consumer’s need for privacy, this study aims to test the effect of two information disclosure nudges on users’ information disclosure behaviors. Whereas previous literature on user-chatbot interaction focused on encouraging and increasing users’ disclosures, this study introduces measures that make users conscious of their disclosure behaviors to low and high-sensitivity questions asked by chatbots. A within-subjects laboratory experiment entailed 19 participants interacting with chatbots, responding to pre-tested questions of varying sensitivity while being presented with different information disclosure nudges. The results suggest that question sensitivity negatively impacts users’ information disclosures to chatbots. Moreover, this study suggests that adding a sensitivity signal—presenting the level of sensitivity of the question asked by the chatbot—influences users’ information disclosure behaviors. Finally, the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the results are discussed.