Judged by humans, comforted by machines: How psychological expectations shape experiences and perceptions of AI support.
Roshni Raveendhran, Trevor A. Foulk · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 2026
= 3,341), we found that these initial expectations produce two distinct effects: People report lower fear of negative evaluation after receiving support from AI versus a human, which in turn improves well-being outcomes (Studies 1-3), and people perceive AI as exceeding their expectations for empathy, which in turn drives perceived support effectiveness (Studies 4-6). These effects emerged across controlled simulations and real interactions with actual human and AI support givers. Together, these findings reveal that initial psychological expectations about AI's experiential capacity play a central role in shaping the experience and perception of AI support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).