Toward Meaningful Transparency for AI Chatbots: Disclosing Persuasive Intent Reduces Persuasion
The growing role of AI-generated content and AI-enabled systems in public communication has led regulators to demand clear disclosure of content provenance and AI involvement. But the effects of such disclosures remain uncertain. We test two disclosure approaches in their impact on an AI chatbot's persuasive appeal. In a preregistered experiment, 1,500 UK adults held a short conversation with a persuasive chatbot about one of 60 policy issues. The chatbot was identical for everyone. We randomized the disclosure that people received: nothing (control), a prominent disclosure that they were interacting with an AI (T1), or that disclosure plus the chatbot's persuasive intent and instructions...
| Authors | Adrian Rauchfleisch, Andreas Jungherr |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CY |
| Published | 12 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 12 August 2026 |
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