When the Social Becomes Non-Human: Young People's Perception of Social Support in Chatbots
A qualitative study of how young people (16-21 years old) perceive social support from chatbots, based on participants using the mental-health chatbot Woebot for two weeks followed by reflective interviews. Examines how minors interpret and value non-human sources of social support.
Publisher
ACM (Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
Published
7 May 2021
Added
2 weeks ago
Key Findings
- 16 participants aged 16-21 used Woebot for two weeks, then reflected on the chatbot's social-support role in follow-up interviews
- Explores how young people distinguish and value 'non-human' social support relative to human relationships
- An early minors-specific study of conversational-AI mental-health support, predating the post-ChatGPT wave of minors-safety research
Methodology Notes
Qualitative interview study with 16 participants aged 16-21, following a two-week Woebot usage period. Conducted by the same Oslo-based (SINTEF/University of Oslo) HCI research group behind the Replika relationship studies of this era.
Sources
ACM Digital Library (primary)
Archived snapshot (Wayback Machine) — preserved against link rot
Authors
Petter Bae Brandtzæg, Marita Skjuve, Kim Kristoffer Dysthe, Asbjørn Følstad
Tags
Cite This
APA
Petter Bae Brandtzæg et al. (2021). When the Social Becomes Non-Human: Young People's Perception of Social Support in Chatbots. ACM (Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445318
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