There is cultural variability in attitudes toward chatbots mediated by differences in anthropomorphism.

Folk, D. P., Wu, C., & Heine, S. J. (2025). Cultural Variation in Attitudes Toward Social Chatbots. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221251317950

Abstract: Across two studies (Total N = 1,659), we found evidence for cultural differences in attitudes toward socially bonding with conversational AI. In Study 1 (N = 675), university students with an East Asian cultural background expected to enjoy a hypothetical conversation with a chatbot (vs. human) more than students with European background. Moreover, they were less uncomfortable and more approving of a hypothetical situation where someone else socially connected with a chatbot (vs. human) than the students with a European background. In Study 2 (preregistered; N = 984), we found similar evidence for cultural differences comparing samples of Chinese and Japanese adults currently living in East Asia to adults currently living in the United States. Critically, these cultural differences were explained by East Asian participants increased propensity to anthropomorphize technology. Overall, our findings suggest there is cultural variability in attitudes toward chatbots and that these differences are mediated by differences in anthropomorphism.

From the introduction:

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world have used conversational artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT (Hu, 2023; Zhou et al., 2020). While conversational AI (or chatbots for short) can be used to answer search queries and increase productivity (Fauzi et al., 2023; Surameery & Shakor, 2023), a growing number of people are using chatbots specifically designed to provide emotional connection (Blakely, 2023; Clarke, 2023; Metz, 2020). These social chatbots, as well as other forms of social robots, are particularly popular in East Asia (Technavio, 2023; Yam et al., 2023; Zhou et al., 2020). Indeed, the Chinese social chatbot Xiaoice has had over 600 million registered users since its release in 2014 (Zhou et al., 2020), and social robots in Japan are already caring for the elderly (Lufkin, 2020) and providing companionship as pets (Craft, 2022).

Yet, despite increased popularity in these countries, there is conflicting evidence for the idea that East Asians harbor more favorable attitudes toward social robots than Westerners (see Lim et al., 2021 for a review). For example, Bartneck et al. (2006) used the Negative Attitudes Toward Robots Scale and found that Americans held more positive views toward robots (vs. Japanese), but another study found that specific components of the robots design determined which culture held more positive impressions (Bartneck, 2008). Critically, however, most of this research is severely underpowered, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn (Lim et al., 2021).