Caring for Vincent

Abstract

The digitization of mental health care holds promises of affordable and ubiquitously available treatment, e.g., with conversational agents (chatbots). While technology can guide people to care for themselves, we examined how people can care for another being as a way to care for themselves. We created a self-compassion chatbot (Vincent) and compared between caregiving and care-receiving conditions. Care-giving Vincent asked participants to partake in self-compassion exercises. Care-receiving Vincent shared its foibles, e.g., embarrassingly arriving late at an IP address, and sought out advice. While self-compassion increased for both conditions, only those with care-receiving Vincent significantly improved. In tandem, we offer qualitative data on how participants interacted with Vincent. Our exploratory research shows that when a person cares for a chatbot, the person's selfcompassion can be enhanced. We further reflect on design implications for strengthening mental health with chatbots.

When the Social Becomes Non-Human: Young People's Perception of Social Support in Chatbots

“…With social chatbots [14], the scope of social support resources has broadened dramatically. Such chatbots may help people who are experiencing troubles and can be interacted with anywhere and anytime [6] while providing comforting and caring efects [55]. They can support people who feel isolated, both emotionally and physically, and provide instant feedback and supportive dialogue [6].…”

Exploring the Effects of Technological Writing Assistance for Support Providers in Online Mental Health Community

“…Compared to RE mode, MepsBot in AS mode is perceived significantly (H2a) easier to use, (H2b) more likeable, but (H2c) less useful in helping users to write comments to support others online. We adapt metrics from [10,43,56] to measure each aspect with one item on a standard 7-point Likert scale.…”

Effects of Support-Seekers’ Community Knowledge on Their Expressed Satisfaction with the Received Comments in Mental Health Communities

“…If they are satisfied with it, the bot can further invite seekers to show their contentment in response by explaining the potential benefits (e.g., build a connection [39]) of doing so. If they are not, the bot could act as a friend to comfort the seekers and encourage them to disclosure their feeling to the bot [35][36][37]. However, designers should be aware that such technological interventions could potentially bring additional labor to the support-seekers [26] and frustrate support-seekers who are sensitive of being judged in OMHCs [25,77], and members should have the option to enable / disable such interventions.…”