Emotional Support Through AI: Venting to Artificial Intelligence or a Human May Offer Comparable Emotional Well-Being Benefits

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are increasingly being explored as sources of informalemotional support, with emerging evidence suggesting that venting to these systems canreduce negative affect. Yet, it remains unclear whether such benefits depend on theresponder’s perceived identity. Given that emotional relief from venting often hinges onperceived authenticity and emotional validation, this study investigates whether the emotionalwell-being benefits of venting differ when users believe they are interacting with an AIchatbot versus a human, even when responses are identical. In a pre-registered between-subjects experiment (N = 279), participants were randomly assigned to either an AI-assistedventing condition or a perceived human-assisted venting condition. Importantly, participantsin both conditions received similar responses generated by an AI chatbot. Although in theperceived human-assisted venting condition, these responses were slightly edited andpresented in a context designed to enhance their credibility as coming from a real person.Results indicated that venting improved emotional well-being outcomes in both conditions,including reductions in stress and loneliness, and increases in perceived social support.However, the magnitude of improvement in emotional well-being outcomes was similaracross the AI-assisted venting and perceived human-assisted venting conditions. Thesefindings suggest that AI chatbots may deliver emotional benefits comparable to thoseprovided by a perceived human responder, even when users are aware they are interactingwith an artificial agent.