Responsive Yet Non-Human: The Dual Influence of Financial Chatbots on Empathic Engagement During Stock Price Plunge

Empowered by technical innovation, AI-based chatbots possess enhanced interactive capabilities to facilitate investor services in the finance field. An online experimental survey (n=395) was conducted, focusing on a stock price plunge scenario, to investigate the influence of financial chatbots on investor emotion and behavior. Our findings suggest that perceived empathy is a key factor in investor interactions, which further affects the mitigation of negative emotions and changes in investment intentions. Then, we uncover a dual pathway through which financial chatbots, compared to senior executives, influence investors' perceived empathy. Specifically, financial chatbots can enhance empathy through the mediation of excellent responsiveness, while its direct impact on empathy is negative, possibly stemming from investors' subjective biases against nonhuman entities. Mediation analysis highlights the significance of several theoretical pathways. We find partial heterogeneity effects of interaction orientation, offering theoretical contributions to relevant literature and valuable guidance for listed companies.