Psychologists Folk and Dunn: AI assistants worsen loneliness instead of helping

Loneliness drives people to AI chatbots, but communication with them only intensifies isolation. This conclusion was reached by psychologists Danigän Folk and Elizabeth Dunn after conducting a year-long study of 2,149 adults from four English-speaking countries.

The Paradox of Help

Loneliness is a powerful psychological driver that forces people to seek relief by any means. AI bots seem like the perfect solution: they are always available, don't judge, and are ready to talk at any time. But this apparent help can be dangerous. People experiencing chronic loneliness are often in a vulnerable psychological state. When they turn to chatbots, they receive a simulation of genuine human communication — without eye contact, nonverbal interaction, or genuine empathy. This creates an illusion of help, but in reality only deepens the habit of isolation.

What Scientists Found

Folk and Dunn conducted monitoring over the course of a year and discovered several key patterns:

• People with high levels of loneliness more often turn to AI bots
• The more they communicate with bots, the less they initiate real human interaction
• Regular use of chatbots is associated with deepening feelings of isolation
• Bot communication creates a closed loop: loneliness → seeking help → deepening isolation

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science and is based on real data, not theoretical assumptions. The authors verified the pattern on a large sample and across several countries.

Why This Happens

AI bots are inherently unable to provide what a person suffering from loneliness needs: genuine presence of another person, unpredictability of communication, mutual exchange. A bot always responds predictably, is always polite, never shows fatigue.

"Bots can simulate company, but cannot replace it."

Moreover, people accustomed to communicating with bots may lose their real communication skills. They become used to the absence of criticism, instant responses, and absolute availability. Real people rarely meet this standard, which makes the return to human communication even more painful.

What This Means

The study does not mean that AI bots are harmful as such — the problem is that they become a crutch for people who are already experiencing loneliness. For developers, this is a signal: responsibility for user health is more important than simply creating an accessible tool. Society should address the root cause of loneliness — the lack of structured opportunities for genuine communication — instead of offering technological substitutes. AI can be useful as a supplement, but will never become a replacement for real relationships.