Direct pathways from anthropomorphism to self-disclosure in artificial intelligence Chatbot use: a mixed-methods multi-study investigation

Anthropomorphic design is widely assumed to shape self-disclosure and emotional dependence by first cultivating felt empathy and trust, and the safety measures platforms deploy, such as labelling and disclosure of artificial origin, target those perceptions. Across a twelve-country survey, forty-seven interviews, and three experiments, this research tests that mediation model and identifies the route that carries the behavioural effect. A twelve-country survey (N = 1480) found empathy and trust negligibly related to disclosure and dependence at the trait level. Two experiments (N = 390 and N = 300) produced strong direct effects of an anthropomorphic agent, with the anthropomorphic agent roughly tripling the odds of behavioural disclosure (63% versus 35% under a matched neutral prompt), while the indirect effects through empathy and trust received no support. Study 5 (N = 300) measured competing mediators and provided the most defensible interim account of the mechanism: only perceived anonymity and reduced evaluation apprehension carried the effect on disclosure, locating the process in online disinhibition rather than felt relational warmth. Forty-seven interviews surfaced clinically salient disclosure, including suicidal ideation revealed to a chatbot and to no person. Because the consequences of anthropomorphic design travel through the lowered social risk of the medium, safeguards that recalibrate how users perceive an agent may leave disclosure and dependence largely untouched.