Does Anthropomorphic Language Impact Public Perceptions of AI?
Public discourse about artificial intelligence (AI) often uses anthropomorphic language: language that attributes human capabilities and characteristics to AI systems. This practice has been criticized for setting misleading expectations, inflating claims, and fueling hype around AI, which may distort public understanding of AI and impact policy priorities. We study the effects of anthropomorphic framing by comparing changes in participants' perceptions of AI (N=815) when reading passages with and without anthropomorphic language, designed to reflect realistic public-facing AI discourse. We further examine whether these effects differ across two types of AI technologies -- large language ...
| Authors | Betty Li Hou, Sophie Hao, Sunoo Park et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 28 June 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 29 September 2026 |
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