I hereby consent: Leveraging consent management and chatbot anthropomorphism to influence information disclosure and usage intentions

• Transparent, just-in-time consent management significantly increases users’ willingness to share personal data. • Chatbot anthropomorphism did not significantly affect disclosure intentions, challenging prior assumptions. • Prioritizing transparent consent management is key to building trust and improving chatbot interactions. As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots becomes more prevalent, organizations face increasing pressure to adopt ethical and transparent data collection practices. This research investigated how variations in consent management (CM) design, guided by social contract theory, and different levels of chatbot anthropomorphism influenced users’ intentions to use chatbots and to disclose personal information, across three experimental studies. The findings demonstrate that transparent CM, especially when presented ‘just-in-time’, significantly increases willingness to disclose information. Contrary to prior assumptions, we found that anthropomorphism does not significantly influence disclosure intentions. These findings suggest that CM transparency plays a critical role when interacting with chatbots. Our findings also provide actionable implications for organizations in designing ethical and effective chatbot systems.