The Dual Role of Individualism in AI Chatbot Disclosure: How Privacy Concerns, Culture, and Behavior Shape Human–AI Communication Across Mainland China, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, and the U.S.

Abstract

The privacy–disclosure relationship is often treated as uniform and cross-culturally stable. This study challenges this assumption by surveying N = 5,096 AI chatbot users in Mainland China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and the U.S. Results show substantial, cross-cultural differences in self-disclosure across breadth, depth, honesty, and valence with Chinese users disclosing most and German users least. Privacy concerns reduced honesty and valence, but not breadth or depth. Multilevel models revealed that individual-level behavioral individualism increased self-disclosure but also strengthened the negative link between privacy concerns and disclosure honesty. In contrast, cultural individualism reduced self-disclosure overall but buffered the negative association between privacy concerns and all disclosure dimensions. These findings complicate the presumed uniform role of individualism in privacy behavior and extend Communication Privacy Management theory by integrating both micro- and macro-level cultural contingencies in human–AI interactions. Implications for culturally adaptive, privacy-conscious AI design are discussed.