Speaking Through Chatbots or Text: How Format Shapes Information Agreement, Reactance, Environmental Awareness, and Trust

Recent advances in large language models suggest that conversational agents (CAs) equipped with environmental knowledge are a promising way to promote environmental awareness. However, so far it remains unclear whether information provided by a CA outperforms static text in increasing agreement, decreasing reactance, fostering environmental awareness and trust. In this preregistered, multi-week, repeated-measures online intervention (N = 449), we varied information format (CA, text) and information valence (positive, negative, neutral) (between-subjects). Participants interacted with the CA over four consecutive weeks. Information delivered by the CA led to higher agreement and lower reactance regardless of the valence of the information and time point. Environmental awareness increased over time, especially for participants with low initial environmental awareness, but these increases were independent of format and valence. Trust in the CA also increased over time in negative and neutral valence, but not in positive valence.