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The developments of AI provide new opportunities for government service delivery. During disasters, government agencies are obligated to act as caregivers and provide support to citizens and residents in danger. However, limited studies are grounded in how chatbots and human governmental agents should apply supportive communication strategies. To fill this gap, this study conducted a 2 (Government Agent type: AI chatbot agent vs. Human agent) x 2 (Verbal Person-centeredness: High vs. Low) x 3 (Emoji Person-centeredness: High vs Low vs No emoji) design to explore their effects on emotional distress and evaluations of government service quality (N = 363). This study finds that higher verbal person-centeredness can reduce citizens’ emotional distress and evaluations of government service quality. Additionally, when lower levels of verbal and emoji person-centeredness were used, citizens evaluated service quality more positively when a chatbot agent sent the message than when a human agent did. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Qi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.