Having difficult conversations is a cornerstone of healthy relationships, yet people are often reluctant to initiate them. We propose that chatbots, with their remarkable ability to emulate human communication, can be harnessed to help people prepare for difficult conversations. In a pre-registered study ( N = 1,371), participants who briefly prepared for a difficult conversation with a chatbot were significantly more likely to initiate that conversation in real life over the following week, compared to those in a control condition. This effect was partly driven by participants anticipating that the conversation would go better after discussing it with a chatbot. Our findings indicate that when deployed thoughtfully, chatbots can influence consequential real-world behaviour within existing social relationships.
Maheshka et al. (Tue,) studied this question.