Qualitative studies describe distress, relational disruption, and meaningful companion loss when chatbot use becomes emotionally significant¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr2·q1
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
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q1 i? Qualitative studies report distress, confusion, relational disruption, and reactions to platform instability among users who experienced a chatbot as emotionally significant; these accounts do not estimate prevalence or show causation. → Yan D 2026
Evidence¶
Yan D 2026¶
Yan D (2026). A critical narrative synthesis of psychological correlates, measurement, and reported findings on conversational AI engagement and dependence-related constructs. Front. Psychol. 17:1827795. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1827795
q1 · i? · review · r2
Review's synthesis (Section 3.5.2) of qualitative studies, including a grounded-theory study of Replika users, describing "distress, confusion, relational disruption, and reactions to platform instability". Companion loss and deletion were also reported as meaningful relational events (Banks, 2024).
"Qualitative work described distress, confusion, relational disruption, and reactions to platform instability when users experienced a chatbot as emotionally significant (Laestadius et al., 2024)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Cluster analysis identifies four tentative moral response profiles: Comfortable Adopters, Guilty Non-Users, Cautious Users, and Morally Distressed Avoiders — related
- Teachers describe AI companions as a low-stakes rehearsal space for students who struggle socially, including autistic students — related
- Students perceive conversational-agent interventions as disruptive and react to the automatic disruptions differently — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
qualitative-distress-companion-loss-emotionally-significant-use |
title |
Qualitative studies describe distress, relational disruption, and meaningful companion loss when chatbot use becomes emotionally significant |
description |
Qualitative studies describe distress, relational disruption, and meaningful companion loss when chatbot use becomes emotionally significant |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-12 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — yan-d-2026 |
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