As artificial intelligence technologies evolve, a discernible trend is emerging wherein chatbots are imbued with the capability to articulate emotions within online customer service. However, the research on emotional expression by chatbots is still in its infancy, and the existing research on this aspect is inconclusive. Therefore, from the perspective of chatbots expressing humor, this study proposes a boundary condition for the effectiveness of chatbot-expressed humor and a different influence mechanism of expressing humor in different dialogues on service satisfaction through four experimental studies. Our study found that chatbots' expression of humor in chit-chat dialogues leads to higher perceived entertainment and service satisfaction for customers; however, chatbots' expression of humor in task-oriented dialogues leads to distraction and lower service satisfaction. In addition, we found that entertainment significantly mediated between humor in chit-chat dialogues and service satisfaction, while distraction had a significant indirect effect between humor in task-oriented dialogues and service satisfaction. These findings deepen our understanding of chatbot-expressed humor and provide valuable insights into online retailers’ deployment of humorous chatbots.

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聊天机器人什么时候应该表达幽默？探讨幽默对服务满意度的不同影响机制

随着人工智能技术的发展，一种明显的趋势正在出现，其中聊天机器人具有在在线客户服务中表达情感的能力。然而，聊天机器人对情感表达的研究仍处于起步阶段，现有的这方面的研究尚无定论。因此，本研究从聊天机器人表达幽默的角度出发，通过四项实验研究，提出了聊天机器人表达幽默有效性的边界条件，以及不同对话中表达幽默对服务满意度的不同影响机制。我们的研究发现，聊天机器人在闲聊对话中表达幽默可以提高客户的娱乐感和服务满意度；然而，聊天机器人在面向任务的对话中表达幽默会导致注意力分散并降低服务满意度。此外，我们发现娱乐在闲聊对话中的幽默和服务满意度之间显着中介，而分心在任务导向对话中的幽默和服务满意度之间具有显着的间接影响。这些发现加深了我们对聊天机器人表达的幽默的理解，并为在线零售商部署幽默聊天机器人提供了宝贵的见解。