The double-edged sword of artificial empathy: user resistance and acceptance in emotional vs. functional interactions

As artificial intelligence systems increasingly participate in emotionally sensitive interactions, artificial empathy can both enhance and undermine users’ responses. This study examines how artificial empathy influences perceived usefulness, trust, and intention to use, and whether these effects depend on interaction orientation (emotional vs. functional). We conducted two scenario-based experiments (N = 480). Study 1 establishes baseline relationships between artificial empathy, perceived usefulness, trust, and intention. Study 2 employs a 2 × 2 between-subjects design to test moderation by interaction orientation. Results show that artificial empathy increases perceived usefulness, trust, which in turn predict usage intention. These positive effects are found to be significantly weaker in emotional interactions than in functional interactions, which points to the contextual boundary of the empathy paradox that empathic cues may raise authenticity-related concerns and reduce acceptance, especially in emotional settings. These findings highlight the need for context-aware calibration of empathic cues in human–artificial intelligence interaction.