AI emotional support is better only when chosen, but shifts preferences even when it is not
Yaoxi Shi Cathy Mengying Fang Guy LabanPattie Maes Amit Goldenberg
作者信息
Abstract
People increasingly face a novel decision when seeking emotional support: human or AI. In existing studies, AI's empathic messages are rated as well as or better than humans'. But these studies either assigned the support source or honored people's choice. In real life, support is often incongruent with choice, as people want one source and receive the other. Across three experiments (N = 1,951), participants chose whether to share an emotional experience with a human or an AI, then were randomly assigned to a congruent or incongruent partner. AI support was rated as superior only among those who had chosen it. Yet regardless of congruence, interacting with AI increased willingness to choose it again. In a 28-day study with OpenAI (N = 981), daily conversations shifted preferences toward AI and away from humans, but only when conversations turned personal. Emotional support choices are thus path-dependent, progressively redirecting away from human connection.引用本文复制引用
Yaoxi Shi,Cathy Mengying Fang,Guy LabanPattie Maes,Amit Goldenberg.AI emotional support is better only when chosen, but shifts preferences even when it is not[EB/OL].(2026-08-24)[2026-09-01].https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23196.学科分类
计算技术、计算机技术/信息传播、知识传播
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