Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans
Abstract Empathy connects us but strains under demanding settings. This study explored how third parties evaluated AI-generated empathetic responses versus human responses in terms of compassion, responsiveness, and overall preference across four preregistered experiments. Participants (N = 556) rea...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Psychology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00182-6 |
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| _version_ | 1841544283937570816 |
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| author | Dariya Ovsyannikova Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello Michael Inzlicht |
| author_facet | Dariya Ovsyannikova Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello Michael Inzlicht |
| author_sort | Dariya Ovsyannikova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Empathy connects us but strains under demanding settings. This study explored how third parties evaluated AI-generated empathetic responses versus human responses in terms of compassion, responsiveness, and overall preference across four preregistered experiments. Participants (N = 556) read empathy prompts describing valenced personal experiences and compared the AI responses to select non-expert or expert humans. Results revealed that AI responses were preferred and rated as more compassionate compared to select human responders (Study 1). This pattern of results remained when author identity was made transparent (Study 2), when AI was compared to expert crisis responders (Study 3), and when author identity was disclosed to all participants (Study 4). Third parties perceived AI as being more responsive—conveying understanding, validation, and care—which partially explained AI’s higher compassion ratings in Study 4. These findings suggest that AI has robust utility in contexts requiring empathetic interaction, with the potential to address the increasing need for empathy in supportive communication contexts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-660066dd0840409da731b796d58a002c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2731-9121 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-660066dd0840409da731b796d58a002c2025-01-12T12:38:21ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Psychology2731-91212025-01-013111110.1038/s44271-024-00182-6Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humansDariya Ovsyannikova0Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello1Michael Inzlicht2Department of Psychology, University of TorontoDepartment of Psychology, University of TorontoDepartment of Psychology, University of TorontoAbstract Empathy connects us but strains under demanding settings. This study explored how third parties evaluated AI-generated empathetic responses versus human responses in terms of compassion, responsiveness, and overall preference across four preregistered experiments. Participants (N = 556) read empathy prompts describing valenced personal experiences and compared the AI responses to select non-expert or expert humans. Results revealed that AI responses were preferred and rated as more compassionate compared to select human responders (Study 1). This pattern of results remained when author identity was made transparent (Study 2), when AI was compared to expert crisis responders (Study 3), and when author identity was disclosed to all participants (Study 4). Third parties perceived AI as being more responsive—conveying understanding, validation, and care—which partially explained AI’s higher compassion ratings in Study 4. These findings suggest that AI has robust utility in contexts requiring empathetic interaction, with the potential to address the increasing need for empathy in supportive communication contexts.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00182-6 |
| spellingShingle | Dariya Ovsyannikova Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello Michael Inzlicht Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans Communications Psychology |
| title | Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans |
| title_full | Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans |
| title_fullStr | Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans |
| title_full_unstemmed | Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans |
| title_short | Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans |
| title_sort | third party evaluators perceive ai as more compassionate than expert humans |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00182-6 |
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