MIT researchers are exploring the psychological impacts of human tendencies to anthropomorphize artificial intelligence, examining how people naturally treat robots and chatbots like human beings. During a visit to MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, a researcher interacted with a $50,000 humanoid robot named Gabe by instinctively shaking its hand and greeting it politely. This behavior reflects broader psychological research highlighting that humans are wired to care for relational artifacts and often exhibit polite manners toward AI models.
Dr. Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor researching human-computer relationships since 1976, notes in her book Artificial Intimacy that people easily believe primitive AI exchanges care for them, triggering a reciprocal urge to care back. Additional studies show that roughly 70 percent of individuals remain polite during AI interactions, frequently saying please or thank you as conversations progress. Dr. Pat Pataranutaporn, founder of the Cyborg Psychology research group at the MIT Media Lab, emphasizes that the core question involves understanding who humans become when interacting constantly with artificial intelligence.
While routine politeness carries no material consequence, the rising integration of chatbots into everyday search and customer service tools creates vulnerabilities. Users can mistakenly ascribe deep legitimacy to conflict-free chatbots, sometimes preferring them over real humans and risking detachment from reality. Pataranutaporn, who served as an expert in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a Character.AI chatbot and a teenager, warns that companies must act more ethically as technology deepens emotional reliance. Why it matters: Understanding how humans psychologically bond with AI is increa