Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
parasocial
human-agent relations
conversational agents
misapplication
sociality
Ghosting the Machine: Stop Calling Human-Agent Relations Parasocial
🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the prevalent misuse of the term “parasocial” in human–AI interaction research to describe relationships between humans and conversational agents, a practice that engenders theoretical confusion and undervalues empirical findings. Through theoretical analysis, conceptual clarification, and a critical interdisciplinary review, the paper retraces the original meaning of parasocial relationships and argues that interactions with dialogic AI systems exhibit genuine sociality rather than unidirectional, illusionary projections. By correcting this conceptual misapplication in both scholarship and practice, the work advances a more rigorous theoretical framework and ethical understanding, emphasizing the need to recognize the social reality of human–agent interactions. This reconceptualization offers new directions for future research norms and the design of socially aware AI systems.
📝 Abstract
In discussions of human relations with conversational agents (CAs; e.g., voice assistants, AI companions, some social robots), they are increasingly referred to as parasocial. This is a misapplication of the term, heuristically taken up to mean "unreal." In this provocation, I briefly account for the theoretical trajectory of parasociality and detail why it is inaccurate to apply the notion to human interactions with CAs. In short, "parasocial" refers to a human-character relations that are one-sided, non-dialectical, character-governed, imagined, vicarious, predictable, and low-effort; the term has been co-opted to instead refer to relations that are seen as unreal or invalid. The scientific problematics of this misapplication are nontrivial. They lead to oversimplification of complex phenomena, misspecified variables and misdiagnosed effects, and devaluation of human experiences. Those challenges, in turn, have downstream effects on norms and practice. It is scientifically, practically, and ethically imperative to recognize the sociality of human-agent relations.
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
parasocial
human-agent interaction
conversational agents
sociality
conceptual misapplication
🔎 Similar Papers
No similar papers found.
