{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7166871875","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","title":"ChatAnime: Towards User-Centered Emotional Support in LLM-based Virtual Character Chat","display_name":"ChatAnime: Towards User-Centered Emotional Support in LLM-based Virtual Character Chat","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-01-01","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7166871875","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.2179.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.2179.pdf","any_repository_has_fulltext":null},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5139734577","display_name":"Lanlan Qiu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Lanlan Qiu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5120308982","display_name":"Sophia Xiao Pu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Sophia Xiao Pu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5139737248","display_name":"Yeqi Feng","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I99065089","display_name":"Tsinghua University","ror":"https://ror.org/03cve4549","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yeqi Feng","raw_affiliation_strings":["Tsinghua University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Tsinghua University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5139732746","display_name":"Wenchang Gao","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Wenchang Gao","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5051747323","display_name":"Tianxing He","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6383-0307"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210135667","display_name":"Xian Mechanical & Electric Institute (China)","ror":"https://ror.org/04d9wma96","country_code":"CN","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210135667"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I99065089","display_name":"Tsinghua University","ror":"https://ror.org/03cve4549","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Tianxing He","raw_affiliation_strings":["Tsinghua University","Xiongan AI Institute"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Tsinghua University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Xiongan AI Institute","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210135667"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":2,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.83396344,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"47062","last_page":"47078"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12128","display_name":"AI in Service Interactions","score":0.12630000710487366,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12128","display_name":"AI in Service Interactions","score":0.12630000710487366,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10709","display_name":"Social Robot Interaction and HRI","score":0.09960000216960907,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3207","display_name":"Social Psychology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/32","display_name":"Psychology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12031","display_name":"Speech and dialogue systems","score":0.09210000187158585,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/character","display_name":"Character (mathematics)","score":0.4390999972820282},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/emotional-support","display_name":"Emotional support","score":0.3808000087738037},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/emotional-expression","display_name":"Emotional expression","score":0.30970001220703125},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/the-internet","display_name":"The Internet","score":0.29670000076293945},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/conversation-analysis","display_name":"Conversation analysis","score":0.2741999924182892}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C15744967","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9418","display_name":"Psychology","level":0,"score":0.6265000104904175},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C77805123","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q161272","display_name":"Social psychology","level":1,"score":0.4657000005245209},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780861071","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1062934","display_name":"Character (mathematics)","level":2,"score":0.4390999972820282},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C46312422","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11024","display_name":"Communication","level":1,"score":0.41040000319480896},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C3018916638","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q752118","display_name":"Emotional support","level":3,"score":0.3808000087738037},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C143110190","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5373787","display_name":"Emotional expression","level":2,"score":0.30970001220703125},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C110875604","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q75","display_name":"The Internet","level":2,"score":0.29670000076293945},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.2775000035762787},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780829048","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1624720","display_name":"Conversation analysis","level":3,"score":0.2741999924182892},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C180747234","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23373","display_name":"Cognitive psychology","level":1,"score":0.2702000141143799},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2778087770","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2297111","display_name":"Social support","level":2,"score":0.2621999979019165},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777200299","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q52943","display_name":"Conversation","level":2,"score":0.2590000033378601}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.2179.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2179","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.2179.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":true,"pdf":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W7166871875.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W7166871875.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"With":[0],"the":[1,115,135],"growing":[2],"popularity":[3],"of":[4,70],"virtual":[5],"character":[6,28],"platforms":[7],"like":[8],"Character.AI,":[9],"users":[10,69],"are":[11],"increasingly":[12],"turning":[13],"to":[14,56],"role-playing":[15,58,148,172],"agents":[16],"for":[17,157],"emotional":[18,64,150,174],"support":[19],"in":[20,30,171,180],"daily":[21],"life.Yet":[22],"existing":[23],"research":[24],"mainly":[25],"focuses":[26],"on":[27,67],"consistency":[29],"fictional":[31],"or":[32],"game-based":[33],"scenarios,":[34],"overlooking":[35],"user-centered":[36],"interactions":[37],"such":[38,91],"as":[39,92],"companionship":[40],"and":[41,63,80,95,106,122,149,173],"psychological":[42],"support.To":[43],"bridge":[44],"this":[45],"gap,":[46],"we":[47,112],"propose":[48],"Emotionally":[49],"Supportive":[50],"Role-Playing":[51],"(ESRP),":[52],"a":[53,98],"framework":[54,138],"designed":[55],"align":[57],"with":[59,119,153],"real-world":[60],"user":[61],"scenarios":[62],"needs.We":[65],"focus":[66],"typical":[68],"these":[71],"platforms,":[72],"i.e.,":[73],"anime":[74,104,169],"enthusiasts-including":[75],"students,":[76],"office":[77],"workers,":[78],"freelancers,":[79],"self-employed":[81],"individuals-and":[82],"design":[83],"scenario-based":[84],"questions":[85],"that":[86,165],"reflect":[87],"their":[88],"everyday":[89],"struggles":[90],"work":[93],"stress":[94],"social":[96],"loneliness.Through":[97],"two-round":[99],"data":[100],"collection":[101],"involving":[102],"40":[103],"fans":[105,170],"10":[107],"Large":[108],"Language":[109],"Models":[110],"(LLMs),":[111],"build":[113],"ChatAnime:":[114],"first":[116],"ESRP":[117,136],"dataset":[118,183],"2,400":[120],"human-written":[121],"24,000":[123],"LLM-generated":[124],"responses,":[125],"supported":[126],"by":[127],"over":[128],"132,000":[129],"finegrained":[130],"human":[131],"annotations.We":[132],"also":[133],"provide":[134],"evaluation":[137,162],"featuring":[139],"9":[140],"fine-grained":[141],"metrics":[142],"across":[143],"three":[144],"dimensions:":[145],"basic":[146],"dialogue,":[147],"support,":[151,175],"along":[152],"an":[154],"overall":[155],"metric":[156],"diversity.Experimental":[158],"results":[159],"under":[160],"our":[161],"setting":[163],"show":[164],"top-performing":[166],"LLMs":[167],"surpass":[168],"while":[176],"humans":[177],"still":[178],"lead":[179],"diversity.The":[181],"ChatAnime":[182],"is":[184],"available":[185],"at":[186],"https://github.com/LanlanQiu/ChatAnime.":[187]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-08-22T07:34:49.880490","created_date":"2026-07-02T00:00:00"}
