With their human-like nature, conversational agents (CAs) introduce a social component to humancomputer interaction. Numerous studies have previously attempted to integrate this social component by incorporating trust into models such as the technology acceptance model (TAM) to decipher the adoption mechanisms related to CAs. Given the heterogeneity of these previous works, the aim of this paper is to integrate empirical evidence on the role and influence of trust within the nomological network of the TAM. For this purpose, we conduct a meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach based on 45 studies comprising k = 155 correlations, and N = 13,786 observations. Our findings highlight the multifaceted role of trust as a mediator transmitting the effects of the technology-related perceptions that drive the intention to use CAs. Our results present a comprehensive overview in a thriving research field that can guide both future theory building and the designs of more trustworthy CAs.
In this study, we examine the configurations of trust-enhancing factors that determine the intention to adopt conversational agents (CAs) for disease diagnosis. After identifying trust factors influencing the behavioral intent to adopt CAs based on the information systems acceptance research field, we assigned 201 participants to use the mobile Ada application and surveyed them about their experience. Ada is a medical diagnostic CA that combines patients' symptoms with their medical history and provides diagnostic suggestions. The collected data was analyzed using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to capture the causal complexity of trust. We identified several configurations of trust-enhancing factors affecting the intention to adopt the CA. In particular, our results show that the adoption intentions are strongly determined by trust factors associated with the performance dimension. Furthermore, we derived two propositions for the development of CAs for healthcare purposes and elaborated implications for research and practice.
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