Go Cry to Gpt: People Offload Interpersonal Empathy to Llms

Across four preregistered studies, perceiving AI as capable of empathy increased people’s willingness to offload empathic labor to ChatGPT. Experimental manipulations of AI portrayals and behavioral tasks showed reduced empathic questioning, helping intentions, and time invested in comforting others. These findings suggest that empathic AI can diminish human empathic engagement.