ReviewFrontiers in digital health2024
Digital loneliness-changes of social recognition through AI companions.
Review in Frontiers in digital health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Factors influencing single young adults' intentions to accept AI virtual companion apps based on the theory of emotional design.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Perceived support from AI chatbots and loneliness among higher vocational college students: a short-term three-wave study of social interaction anxiety and perceived social support.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Dual Chain-Mediation of GenAI Chatbots on Loneliness: Perceived Misinformation Exposure and User Trust via Negative Emotions.International journal of public health · 2026Article
- Loneliness by Design: The Structural Logic of Isolation in Engagement-Driven Systems.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Pathways of long-term AI virtual companion app use on users' attachment emotions: a case study of Chinese users.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Inherent to the experience of loneliness is a significant change of meaningful relatedness that (usually negatively) affects a person's relationship to self and others. This paper goes beyond a purely subjective-phenomenological description of individual suffering by emphasizing loneliness as a symptomatic expression of distortions of social recognition relations. Where there is loneliness, a recognition relation has changed. Most societies face an increase in loneliness among all groups of their population, and this sheds light on the reproduction conditions of social integration and inclusion. These functions are essential lifeworldly components of social cohesion and wellbeing. This study asks whether "social" AI promotes these societal success goals of social integration of lonely people. The increasing tendency to regard AI Companions (
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.