Prompting Responses through Linguistic Cues: : A Comparison of User and Chatbot Support for Consumers' Questions

When interacting with chatbots, questioning is the starting point of the conversations. A well‐phrased question can elicit desired responses and enhance information‐seeking efficiency. Specifically, consumers can use various linguistic cues (e.g., emotional expressiveness) to phrase questions and shape responses. However, research on how to effectively phrase questions for chatbots was limited. This study focuses on consumers' questions for chatbots, examining how various linguistic cues (e.g., emotional expressiveness) influence responses. Further, it compares responses generated by community users and chatbots. Preliminary results showed that askers' self‐disclosure attracted emotional support from chatbots. Chatbots demonstrated higher expertise in responses to high‐specificity questions and produced more analytical and unified responses. In contrast, user‐generated responses were perceived with higher authenticity. This research underscores the role of question cues prompting chatbot‐generated responses and illustrates the strengths and limits of chatbot‐generated responses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the final section.