Study of 554 people: AI persuasion doubles when it's presented as human
DrJ_Lume · reddit · 2026-08-18
A new study ran 554 participants through three rounds of personalized debate about COVID-related conspiracy beliefs. When participants knew they were talking to AI, belief confidence fell by about 7 percentage points; when the same AI-generated conversation was presented as coming from a human, confidence fell by about 14 points — double the effect.
The researchers expected AI to seem more neutral. Instead, participants saw it as less neutral and more threatening to their autonomy. A reminder that persuasion isn't just about the information — who we think is speaking matters too.
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