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Abstract

The release of ChatGPT in late 2022 ushered in a new technological era for humanity, with some comparing it to the introduction of fire. This new generation of chatbots holds potent implications for social and emotional well-being, as hundreds of millions of people are already turning to chatbots for social companionship. AI companionship may prove to be a scalable tool for combating loneliness, but some scholars caution that such relationships may do more harm than good. In this dissertation, I examine when and why chatbots fail and succeed as social partners, with a special focus on the role of mind perception. Chapter 2 tests whether interactions with chatbots (vs. humans) are less rewarding when the chatbot engages in self-disclosure. Chapter 3 explores whether chatbot interactions are less fulfilling when chatbots express empathy — another prototypically human behavior. Chapters 4 and 5 investigate the role of mind perception more directly by examining whether individual (Chapter 4) and cultural (Chapter 5) differences in anthropomorphism predict who emotionally connects with chatbots. In Chapter 6, I move beyond short-term experiments to explore the broader long-term effects of repeatedly turning to AI for companionship. In Chapter 7, I synthesize the results from Chapters 2-6 and discuss the broader implications of the findings presented here. Overall, my findings suggest that AI companions may be akin to social junk food, providing short-term social satiation at the cost of long-term social fulfilment.