Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
When AI Says It Is Not Sure: AI Uncertainty Expression, Trust, and Purchase Hesitation in Online Health Product Recommendation
AI recommendation assistants increasingly provide quasi-advisory support in online health-product shopping, yet little is known about how their expressions of uncertainty shape consumer decisions. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response framework, signaling theory, and computer-mediated communication/Computers Are Social Actors logic, this study conceptualizes AI uncertainty expression (AIUE) as a message-level cue of epistemic certainty. A 2 (AIUE: high vs. low) × 2 (health risk severity: high vs. low) between-s …