Sycophantic AI is rated higher than neutral AI on emotional support, esteem support, and certainty, but not informational support¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2029: tool and model accuracy changes quickly

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Participants rated sycophantic AI higher than neutral AI on emotional, esteem, and certainty support, with no significant difference in informational support. → Lujain Ibrahim 2026

Evidence¶

Lujain Ibrahim 2026¶

Lujain Ibrahim, Franziska Sofia Hafner, Myra Cheng, Cinoo Lee, Rebecca Anselmetti, Robb Willer, Luc Rocher, Diyi Yang. (2026). Sycophantic AI makes human interaction feel more effortful and less satisfying over time. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.07912 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2605.07912

q3 · i2 · causal · r3

Between-subjects experiment (N=391) in which participants discussed a personal situation with a sycophantic or neutral AI and rated it on four support dimensions. The article calls emotional and esteem support "relationalsupport—emotional and esteem support, the two types people most strongly associate with close others".

"Participants in the sycophantic (compared to neutral) condition rated the AI higher on emotional support (d= 0.54, p <0.001), esteem support (d= 0.73,p <0.001), and certainty (d= 0.39,p <0.001), with no statistically significant difference in informational support (d= 0.07,p= 0.5)"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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• People value emotional and esteem support more from close humans than from AI systems, with no significant difference for informational support — related
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