AI emotional support is better only when chosen, but shifts preferences even when it is not

2026-08-24

AI Summary

研究探讨了人们在选择AI或人类情感支持时的偏好变化，发现只有当人们主动选择AI时，才会认为其支持更优；但即使不主动选择，与AI互动也会增加未来选择它的意愿。

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.

Problem

• emotional support
• AI
• human
• choice
• preference

Innovation

• path-dependent
• emotional support
• AI preference
• human-AI interaction