Recent work on Empathic AI has focused on whether people like receiving empathy from AI. But the top use of generative AI in the past year has been for therapy and companionship, so we already know people are going to AI for emotional support. The more important question is: what happens to everyone else? When we learn that others are turning to AI for empathy, do we still feel compelled to show up for them ourselves? 

My research suggests we don't. I find evidence for "empathy offloading:" when people see AI as capable of providing emotional support, they become less willing to do the hard emotional labor of empathizing with others. Giving empathy is morally good, but it is uncomfortable and costly work. When AI can do it instead, people are happy to let it. This has real consequences for human relationships. Kindness revolves around exchanging empathy, and if empathy seekers go to AI and empathy givers stop showing up, the kindness that holds relationships together starts to disappear. My work reveals the dark side of Empathic AI: empathy offloading can quietly break the human connections it was meant to support. 

I am extending this work to study empathic AI's influence on social support in romantic relationships. I am currently running a three week daily diary study, where either both partners in the relationship talk with ChatGPT about their issues, or only one partner talks to ChatGPT. Stay tuned for results!

Victimhood is one of the most powerful forces in human social life. When a person is recognized as a victim, others offer empathy, provide resources, and demand accountability. When a claim is doubted or dismissed, the same person may face indifference, suspicion, or hostility. Using the official TikTok Research API, I am investigating how victimhood functions in naturalistic online settings. Stay tuned for more about methods and results!

As a society, we value efficiency. AI has been a great help in delivering it, and has even beat us in many areas. But in our pursuit of efficiency, we have crossed an invisible moral line. From conducting job interviews to generating fashion models to writing bar exam questions, more and more companies are outsourcing tasks to AI -- tasks that carry social, intellectual, or ethical significance to human employees and consumers. This is not just about adopting a new tool. It is about replacing human involvement in moments that shape people's careers, opportunities, and identities. And when companies make this choice, it signals something about their character: that the people affected by their decisions are not worth the human time, care, or attention. My research examines how consumers perceive companies that outsource to AI, and finds that reactions go beyond doubting the algorithm's competence. Stay tuned for an upcoming Substack post on this work!