The Dynamics of Delusion: Modeling Bidirectional False Belief Amplification in Human-Chatbot Dialogue
There is growing concern that AI chatbots might fuel delusional beliefs in users. Some have suggested that humans and chatbots mutually reinforce false beliefs over time, but quantitative evidence is lacking. Using a unique dataset of chat logs from individuals who exhibited delusional thinking, we developed a latent state model that captures accumulating and decaying influences between humans and chatbots. We find that a bidirectional influence model substantially outperforms a unidirectional alternative where humans are the primary driver of delusion. We find that humans exert strong but short-lived influence on chatbots, whereas chatbots exert longer-lasting influence on humans. Moreov...
| Authors | Ashish Mehta, Jared Moore, Jacy Reese Anthis et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 28 April 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 12 October 2026 |
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