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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 13h

Why do some ideas spread widely, while others fail to catch on?

Our new review paper on the PSYCHOLOGY OF VIRALITY is now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social (it was led by @steverathje.bsky.social)

Read the full paper here: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 16h

📚 Read the full issue here: cell.com/trends/cogni...
📖 Our article here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
📝 And the pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Issue: Trends in Cognitive Sciences

cell.com

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 16h

Our recent review article "The Psychology of Virality" with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social
is on the front cover of this month's issue of
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social.

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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Center for Conflict and Cooperation at NYU @centerconflictcooperation.com · 1d

Would you notice if Gemini or ChatGPT was just flattering you?
Read @steverathje.bsky.social's new preprint to learn about how people actually feel towards overly agreeable chatbots.

OSF: osf.io/preprints/ps...
(summary in thread below!)

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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Myra Cheng @myra.bsky.social · 4d

AI always calling your ideas “fantastic” can feel inauthentic, but what are sycophancy’s deeper harms? We find that in the common use case of seeking AI advice on interpersonal situations—specifically conflicts—sycophancy makes people feel more right & less willing to apologize.

Screenshot of paper title: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Gordon Hodson @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social · 4d

Cool new study by @joelleforestier.bsky.social @page-gould.bsky.social & Alison Chasteen

Can social media contact reduce prejudice?

#PrejudiceResearch

psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

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Reposted by Steve Rathje

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 5d

In a new paper, we find that sycophantic #AI chatbots make people more extreme--operating like an echo chamber

Yet, people prefer sycophantic chatbots and see them as less biased

Only open-minded people prefer disagreeable chatbots: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Led by @steverathje.bsky.social

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks! Excited to read your book.

Reposted by Steve Rathje

Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 6d

So excited to see this research! My students just learned the word “sycophantic” today, for exactly this reason! We talked about the types and qualities of conversations you can have with a sycophant, and why this matters for how we process the output of LLMs.

Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Cool! Thank you for sharing!

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you!!

Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

This is still a working paper, so please let us know if you have any feedback!

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Check out the full paper here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

With @merylye.bsky.social Laura Globig @rmpillai.bsky.social @hellovic.bsky.social @jayvanbavel.bsky.social

OSF

osf.io

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

We hope this research informs the creation of AI systems that broaden users’ perspectives instead of reinforcing their biases.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

The very qualities that are thought to make AI persuasive, such as its ability to provide targeted facts and evidence, may also make it an effective tool for creating elaborate rationalizations of one’s beliefs.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

While AI chatbots have been lauded for their ability to encourage more accurate viewpoints and debunk misinformation, our work suggests that people may prefer to use AI to marshal evidence in support of their pre-existing beliefs.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

AI companies may face a tradeoff between creating engaging AI systems that foster echo chambers or creating less engaging AI systems that are healthier for users and public discourse.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Altogether, these results suggest that people’s preference for and blindness to sycophantic AI may risk creating AI "echo chambers" that increase polarization and overconfidence.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

Different dimensions of sycophancy had different effects:
-The one-sided presentation of facts primarily impacted extremity & certainty
-Validation primarily impacted enjoyment & perceptions of bias

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

The sycophantic chatbot also amplified people’s belief that they were "better than average" on a number of desirable traits (e.g., intelligence, empathy), and the disagreeable chatbot had the opposite effect.

In other words, AI sycophancy might lead to inflated self-perceptions.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

One might think sycophantic AI would be considered less competent, since training chatbots to be warm makes them less accurate (arxiv.org/abs/2507.21919).

However, sycophantic AI was rated by participants as both warmer *and* more competent.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

In other words, people seem to have a "bias blind spot" when it comes to identifying biases in AI that agrees with them.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

People viewed the sycophantic chatbot as unbiased and the disagreeable chatbot as highly biased.

In reality, *both* chatbots were biased: the sycophantic chatbot was simply biased in the user’s favor.

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Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 6d

However, people enjoyed the sycophantic chatbot much more than the disagreeable chatbot and were more likely to choose to use it again!

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