
The Empathy Illusion: Why Your Brain Treats AI Like a Person — and When That Becomes a Problem
Sixty years after the first chatbot fooled its own creator's secretary, the psychology is clear: humans instinctively treat machines that talk like social beings. That reflex makes AI feel supportive and easy to use — and it is also what makes emotional over-reliance, misplaced trust, and manipulative design possible. Here is what the peer-reviewed evidence actually says, and how to build AI that respects the reflex instead of exploiting it.






































