Is a good bot better than a mediocre human?: Chatbots as alternative sources of social connection

Around the world, hundreds of millions of people have used social chatbots designed to provide companionship to their users. But can people reap genuine feelings of social connection and happiness from interacting with chatbots? In Studies 1-4 (all pre-registered; N = 1201), participants shared good news with an interaction partner whom they believed was either a chatbot or a human. The conversation partner responded in either a highly responsive or less responsive manner. Interacting with a highly responsive chatbot was more rewarding than interacting with a less responsive human. Participants who believed they interacted with a highly responsive chatbot felt more rapport, were more socially connected, felt better about their own positive experience, and were in a better mood than participants who interacted with a less responsive human. In a final pre-registered study (n = 401), we identified a critical boundary condition by examining whether participants derived similar benefits when the chatbot partners shared their own experiences. Taken together, our results suggest that despite their inherent lack of agency, chatbots that are programmed to respond in an optimal manner may deliver greater social benefits than suboptimal human conversation partners.