Research Summary: Mind the Style: Impact of Communication Style on Human-Chatbot Interaction

Research from arXiv highlights that the communication style of conversational agents significantly impacts user experience and task success. A study involving a navigation chatbot, NAVI, compared a friendly, supportive style with a direct, task-focused style, alongside a control group receiving direct instructions. The full findings regarding which style was more effective are not provided in this abstract, but the study confirms the importance of this variable.

Why it matters

Understanding the impact of communication style on human-chatbot interaction is strategically important as conversational agents become pervasive across various digital platforms. Tailoring chatbot communication can enhance user engagement, improve task completion rates, and ultimately influence the perceived effectiveness and adoption of automated systems.

Key insights

• The communication style of conversational agents is a critical, yet often under-researched, factor influencing user experience and task success in digital interactions.
• A study was conducted comparing two chatbot communication styles: friendly/supportive and direct/task-focused, with a control group receiving instructions directly.
• The research used a 2D interactive map-based navigation task to evaluate the impact of these styles.
• The study specifically aimed to address the gap in understanding how different communication styles affect human-chatbot interactions.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17850