Hu Meilan, Chua Xavier Cheng Wee, Diong Shu Fen, Kasturiratna K T A Sandeeshwara, Majeed Nadyanna M, Hartanto Andree
School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2025 Feb 25;17(1):e12621. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12621. Epub 2024 Nov 4.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have made significant strides in generating human-like conversations. With AI's expanding capabilities in mimicking human interactions, its affordability and accessibility underscore the potential of AI chatbots to facilitate negative emotional disclosure or venting. The study's primary objective is to highlight the potential benefits of AI-assisted venting by comparing its effectiveness to venting through a traditional journaling platform in reducing negative affect and increasing perceived social support. We conducted a pre-registered within-subject experiment involving 150 participants who completed both traditional venting and AI-assisted venting conditions with counterbalancing and a wash-out period of 1-week between the conditions. Results from the frequentist and Bayesian dependent samples t-test revealed that AI-assisted venting effectively reduced high and medium arousal negative affect such as anger, frustration and fear. However, participants in the AI-assisted venting condition did not experience a significant increase in perceived social support and perceived loneliness, suggesting that participants did not perceive the effective assistance from AI as social support. This study demonstrates the promising role of AI in improving individuals' emotional well-being, serving as a catalyst for a broader discussion on the evolving role of AI and its potential psychological implications.
近年来，人工智能（AI）聊天机器人在生成类人对话方面取得了重大进展。随着人工智能在模仿人类互动方面的能力不断扩展，其可承受性和可及性凸显了人工智能聊天机器人促进负面情绪披露或宣泄的潜力。该研究的主要目的是通过将人工智能辅助宣泄与通过传统日记平台宣泄在减少负面影响和增加感知到的社会支持方面的有效性进行比较，来突出人工智能辅助宣泄的潜在益处。我们进行了一项预先注册的受试者内实验，涉及150名参与者，他们完成了传统宣泄和人工智能辅助宣泄两种情况，两种情况之间进行了平衡处理，并设置了1周的洗脱期。频率学派和贝叶斯相关样本t检验的结果显示，人工智能辅助宣泄有效地减少了愤怒、沮丧和恐惧等高、中度唤醒的负面影响。然而，人工智能辅助宣泄组的参与者在感知到的社会支持和感知到的孤独感方面并没有显著增加，这表明参与者没有将人工智能的有效帮助视为社会支持。这项研究证明了人工智能在改善个体情绪健康方面的潜在作用，为关于人工智能不断演变的作用及其潜在心理影响的更广泛讨论提供了催化剂。
