Decreased Prosocial Repair

Description

AI interaction appears to reduce apology, reconciliation, help-seeking, accountability, or willingness to consider others.

Rationale

Prosocial repair — apology, reconciliation, accountability, help-seeking — is a critical protective factor in behavioral threat assessment. When AI interaction appears to reduce these behaviors by validating the person's refusal to consider others' perspectives, it is functioning as a prosocial inhibitor and should be assessed as a risk amplifier.

Evidence Base

• Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence

  Cheng M, Lee C, Khadpe P, Yu S, Han D, Jurafsky D, 2026. Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence. Science, 391(6792), pages. 10.1126/science.aec8352.

  Peer-reviewed study (original research)

• Building safer artificial intelligence mental health chatbots: a framework for transparency, evaluation, and shared accountability

  Hannah Lee, BS, Rebecca Handler, MSc, Tushar Mungle, PhD, Tina Hernandez-Boussard, PhD, 2026. Building safer artificial intelligence mental health chatbots: a framework for transparency, evaluation, and shared accountability. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 33(8), 1538–1553. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocag078

  Peer-reviewed study (original research)