Prof Guanxiong Huang’s new JOC study shows that AI is as persuasive as humans

28 Dec 2023 (Thu)

Guanxiong Huang, Associate Professor of the Department of Media and Communication, has recently published a research article entitled “Is artificial intelligence more persuasive than humans? A meta-analysis” in the flagship journal of the International Communication Association Journal of Communication, co-authored with COM PhD alumna Sai Wang, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Interactive Media at Hong Kong Baptist University. This article has just come out in Issue 6, Volume 73 of Journal of Communication. It can be found here https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad024

This study is one of the first attempts by communication scholars to theorize AI-based persuasion. It taps into a fundamental question of human-AI communication: how AI in the role of a communicator may affect people’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors as compared to humans. Through meta-analyzing 121 experimental studies that examined the effectiveness of AI versus human in various scenarios (e.g., chatbot, virtual influencer, content generator), Dr. Huang and Wang show that, in general, AI is as persuasive as humans and the effects vary across different roles of AI communicators, directions of human-AI communication, contexts and demographic segments. This study makes significant contributions to the literature on persuasion and human-AI communication and has a far-reaching impact on the broader scholarship on the relationship between humans and the ever-evolving technology.