When AI Disagrees, People Change How They Perceive the Technology, Not Their Original View
A University of Michigan study of 482 US adults, published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports, tested what happens when a chatbot pushes back on a user’s reasoning about personal dilemmas. Agreement raised confidence; disagreement did not lower it. What changed instead was how participants rated the AI, which they judged less emotionally capable and more machine-like, and how willing they were to use it again. This article sets out the design, the asymmetry, the limits, and what it means for anyone engineering sycophancy out of a model.
