Assessing the Effectiveness of Using Chatbots for Positive Psychological Intervention: A Randomized Control Study

Abstract

Abstract: Positive psychological intervention (PPI) is an effective way to increase happiness and make life worth living. To make PPIs publicly available and accessible, researchers have turned to information technology to provide low-cost and automatic human-computer interaction solutions. Although several studies have confirmed the effectiveness of chatbot-based PPIs, the understanding of its mechanisms is still limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how adaptiveness and interaction, two important chatbot features, contribute to the effectiveness of chatbot-based PPIs. Two randomized controlled experiments were conducted with 154 participants. To test the importance of adaptiveness, we divided the participants into three groups (robot recommendation, autonomy, and control groups) and provided PPIs based on different rules. To investigate whether interaction with a chatbot could increase the effectiveness of PPIs, we divided participants into two groups (robot interaction and control groups). Subjective well-being increased significantly for participants in the robot interaction group [t(50)=2.748, p=.008