Factors Predicting Intentions of Adoption and Continued Use of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots for Mental Health: Examining the Role of UTAUT Model, Stigma, Privacy Concerns, and Artificial Intelligence Hesitancy.

Background: Artificial intelligence-based chatbots (AI chatbots) can potentially improve mental health care, yet factors predicting their adoption and continued use are unclear. Methods: We conducted an online survey with a sample of U.S. adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety (N = 393) in 2021 before the release of ChatGPT. We explored factors predicting the adoption and continued use of AI chatbots, including factors of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model, stigma, privacy concerns, and AI hesitancy. Results: Results from the regression indicated that for nonusers, performance expectancy, price value, descriptive norm, and psychological distress are positively related to the intention of adopting AI chatbots, while AI hesitancy and effort expectancy are negatively associated with adopting AI chatbots. For those with experience in using AI chatbots for mental health, performance expectancy, price value, descriptive norm, and injunctive norm are positively related to the intention of continuing to use AI chatbots. Conclusions: Understanding the adoption and continued use of AI chatbots among adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety is essential given that there is a widening gap in the supply and demand of care. AI chatbots provide new opportunities for quality care by supporting accessible, affordable, efficient, and personalized care. This study provides insights for developing and deploying AI chatbots such as ChatGPT in the context of mental health care. Findings could be used to design innovative interventions that encourage the adoption and continued use of AI chatbots among people with symptoms of depression and anxiety and who have difficulty accessing care.

Leveraging Upward Social Comparison in Social Media to Promote Healthy Parenting.

Children's health is heavily influenced by parenting practices that promote healthy eating and physical activities. The present study examined how upward social comparison in social media may facilitate parents' motivation to perform healthy parenting practices. We conducted a 2 (social comparison direction: upward vs. downward) x 2 (similarity: similar vs. dissimilar) experiment. The results indicated that parents who saw upward comparison targets, that is, other children with better eating and exercising practices on social media, were more likely to assimilate their own children with them than parents who saw downward comparison targets. This, in turn, increased the parents' self-evaluation and positively impacted their intention to engage in healthy parenting practices in the future. The study expands the research of social comparison to the domain of comparison of extended self. The empirical evidence demonstrates the positive impact of upward social comparison through assimilation and self-evaluation.

Avatar-User Bond as Meta-Cognitive Experience: Explicating Identification and Embodiment as Cognitive Fluency.

Scholars have not reached an agreement on a theoretical foundation that underlies the psychological effects of avatar use on users. One group of scholars focuses on the perceptual nature of avatar use, proposing that perceiving the self-being represented by a virtual representation leads to the effects (i.e., Proteus effect). Another group suggests that social traits in avatars prime users causing them to behave in accordance with the social traits (i.e., priming effects). We combine these two theoretical explanations and present an alternative approach, hinging on a concept of meta-cognitive experience. The psychological mechanism of the avatar-user bond is explicated in terms of cognitive fluency, a type of meta-cognitive experience reflecting an awareness of how readily or easily information is processed. Under this explication, two concepts related to avatar-user bond, identification and embodiment, are understood as the meta-cognitive experience of cognitive fluency at the level of one's identity and physical body, respectively. Existing empirical evidence on avatar effects is revisited to explore how this new theoretical framework can be applied.

Enhancing Healthy Behaviors Through Virtual Self: A Systematic Review of Health Interventions Using Avatars.

Objective: A systematic review of health interventions using avatars (N = 18) was conducted to provide comprehensive knowledge of the effectiveness of using avatars to promote healthy behaviors, specifically in relationship to healthy eating and exercising. Materials and Methods: Two researchers identified field or laboratory studies that had quantified study results, which were published in peer-reviewed journals in English from January 2000 to March 2019. Databases (PsychInfo, PubMed, and Web of Science), forward reference, and manual searches were used to identify the studies. Search terms included avatar, the Proteus effect, exercise, and diet, among others. Two field interventions and 16 laboratory studies were identified. Information on sample characteristics, technologies used, study design and conditions pertaining to avatars, outcome measures, results, and conclusion were extracted. Results: Six different avatar characteristics used to elicit health outcomes were identified, which are the similarity with the user, avatar body size, self-domain (e.g., ideal-self), customizability, body transformation, and avatar's behaviors. Only a few studies had a no-avatar control group; thus, it was not possible to conclude whether employing avatars in health interventions increases the effectiveness of the interventions in comparison to not using an avatar. Conclusion: The results indicate that using an avatar that is physically active, fit, and similar-looking (to the user) is effective in eliciting healthy behaviors.