Who's Sorry Now: User Preferences Among Rote, Empathic, and Explanatory Apologies from LLM Chatbots

Authors: Z Ashktorab, A Buccella, J D'Cruz, Z Fowler, A Gill, KY Leung, PD Magnus, J Richards

Published: 2025

Publication: arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.02745, 2025•arxiv.org

In a preregistered study with 162 participants, people generally prefer explanatory apologies from LLM chatbots over rote or purely empathic ones—though in biased error scenarios empathic apologies are sometimes favored—highlighting the complexity of designing chatbot apologies that effectively repair trust.

Institution: IBM Research, University at Albany

Research Area: Human–AI interaction, AI systems evaluation, UX, User Experience

Discipline: Computer Science, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)

Citations: 1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.02745