这项研究揭示了AI情感支持的选择性优势，以及它如何影响人们的偏好。了解这些可以帮助我们更好地利用AI技术提供个性化服务。
在三项实验中，参与者选择与人类或AI分享情感体验，然后被随机分配到一致或不一致的伴侣。只有选择AI支持的人认为其更优越。但无论一致性如何，与AI互动都增加了再次选择它的意愿。在OpenAI的28天研究中，日常对话将偏好转向AI并远离人类，但仅在对话变得个人化时。情感支持选择因此具有路径依赖性，逐渐将人们从人类联系中转移开。
AI emotional support is better only when chosen, but shifts preferences even when it is not
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.