How human-AI feedback loops alter human perceptual, emotional and social judgements.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly advancing, enhancing human capabilities across various fields spanning from finance to medicine. Despite their numerous advantages, AI systems can exhibit biased judgements in domains ranging from perception to emotion. Here, in a series of experiments (n = 1,401 participants), we reveal a feedback loop where human-AI interactions alter processes underlying human perceptual, emotional and social judgements, subsequently amplifying biases in humans.

Web-browsing patterns reflect and shape mood and mental health.

Humans spend on average 6.5 hours a day online. A large portion of that time is dedicated to information-seeking.

Three diverse motives for information sharing.

Knowledge is distributed over many individuals. Thus, humans are tasked with informing one another for the betterment of all. But as information can alter people's action, affect and cognition in both positive and negative ways, deciding whether to share information can be a particularly difficult problem.

AI-induced hyper-learning in humans.

Humans evolved to learn from one another. Today, however, learning opportunities often emerge from interactions with AI systems. Here, we argue that learning from AI systems resembles learning from other humans, but may be faster and more efficient.

Poor lie detection related to an under-reliance on statistical cues and overreliance on own behaviour.

The surge of online scams is taking a considerable financial and emotional toll. This is partially because humans are poor at detecting lies. In a series of three online experiments (N = 102, N = 108, N = 100) where participants are given the opportunity to lie as well as to assess the potential lies of others, we show that poor lie detection is related to the suboptimal computations people engage in when assessing lies.

Considering information-sharing motives to reduce misinformation.

Misinformation has risen in recent years, negatively affecting domains ranging from politics to health. To curb the spread of misinformation it is useful to consider why, how, and when people decide to share information. Here we suggest that information-sharing decisions are value-based choices, in which sharers strive to maximize rewards and minimize losses to themselves and/or others.

"How" web searches change under stress.

To adjust to stressful environments, people seek information. Here, we show that in response to stressful public and private events the high-level features of information people seek online alter, reflecting their motives for seeking knowledge. We first show that when people want information to guide action they selectively ask "How" questions.

There is no belief update bias for neutral events: failure to replicate Burton et al. (2022).

In a recent paper, Burton et al. claim that individuals update beliefs to a greater extent when learning an event is less likely compared to more likely than expected. Here, we investigate Burton's et al.

Multifaceted information-seeking motives in children.

From an early age, children need to gather information to learn about their environment. Deciding which knowledge to pursue can be difficult because information can serve several, sometimes competing, purposes. Here, we examine the developmental trajectories of such diverse information-seeking motives.

Changing the incentive structure of social media platforms to halt the spread of misinformation.

The powerful allure of social media platforms has been attributed to the human need for social rewards. Here, we demonstrate that the spread of misinformation on such platforms is facilitated by existing social 'carrots' (e.g.

The illusory truth effect leads to the spread of misinformation.

Misinformation can negatively impact people's lives in domains ranging from health to politics. An important research goal is to understand how misinformation spreads in order to curb it. Here, we test whether and how a single repetition of misinformation fuels its spread.

Sensitivity to intrinsic rewards is domain general and related to mental health.

Humans frequently engage in intrinsically rewarding activities (for example, consuming art, reading). Despite such activities seeming diverse, we show that sensitivity to intrinsic rewards is domain general and associated with mental health. In this cross-sectional study, participants online ( = 483) were presented with putative visual, cognitive and social intrinsic rewards as well as monetary rewards and neutral stimuli.

Evaluation of Early Ketamine Effects on Belief-Updating Biases in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Importance: Clinical research has shown that persistent negative beliefs maintain depression and that subanesthetic ketamine infusions induce rapid antidepressant responses.

Objective: To evaluate whether ketamine alters belief updating and how such cognitive effects are associated with the clinical effects of ketamine.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This study used an observational case-control protocol with a mixed-effects design that nested 2 groups by 2 testing time points.

Why and When Beliefs Change.

Why people do or do not change their beliefs has been a long-standing puzzle. Sometimes people hold onto false beliefs despite ample contradictory evidence; sometimes they change their beliefs without sufficient reason. Here, we propose that the utility of a belief is derived from the potential outcomes associated with holding it.

Quantifying the heritability of belief formation.

Individual differences in behaviour, traits and mental-health are partially heritable. Traditionally, studies have focused on quantifying the heritability of high-order characteristics, such as happiness or education attainment. Here, we quantify the degree of heritability of lower-level mental processes that likely contribute to complex traits and behaviour.

Anxiety increases information-seeking in response to large changes.

Seeking information when anxious may help reduce the aversive feeling of uncertainty and guide decision-making. If information is negative or confusing, however, this may increase anxiety further. Information gathered under anxiety can thus be beneficial and/or damaging.

Observing others give & take: A computational account of bystanders' feelings and actions.

Social interactions influence people's feelings and behavior. Here, we propose that a person's well-being is influenced not only by interactions they experience themselves, but also by those they observe. In particular, we test and quantify the influence of observed selfishness and observed inequality on a bystanders' feelings and non-costly punishment decisions.

Perceptions of personal and public risk: Dissociable effects on behavior and well-being.

Unlabelled: When faced with a global threat peoples' perception of risk guides their response. When danger is to the self as well as to others two risk estimates are generated-to the self and to others. Here, we set out to examine how people's perceptions of health risk to the self and others are related to their psychological well-being and behavioral response.

Individual differences in information-seeking.

Vast amounts of personalized information are now available to individuals. A vital research challenge is to establish how people decide what information they wish to obtain. Here, over five studies examining information-seeking in different domains we show that information-seeking is associated with three diverse motives.

Under Threat, Weaker Evidence Is Required to Reach Undesirable Conclusions.

Critical decisions, such as in domains ranging from medicine to finance, are often made under threatening circumstances that elicit stress and anxiety. The negative effects of such reactions on learning and decision-making have been repeatedly underscored. In contrast, here we show that perceived threat alters the process by which evidence is accumulated in a way that may be adaptive.

A selective effect of dopamine on information-seeking.

Humans are motivated to seek information from their environment. How the brain motivates this behavior is unknown. One speculation is that the brain employs neuromodulatory systems implicated in primary reward-seeking, in particular dopamine, to instruct information-seeking.

Belief updating in bipolar disorder predicts time of recurrence.

Bipolar disorder is a chronic relapsing condition in which mood episodes are interspersed with periods of wellbeing (euthymia). Shorter periods of euthymia are associated with poorer functioning, so it is crucial to identify predictors of relapse to facilitate treatment. Here, we test the hypothesis that specific valence-dependent learning patterns emerge prior to the clinical manifestation of a relapse, predicting its timing.

The motivational cost of inequality: Opportunity gaps reduce the willingness to work.

Factors beyond a person's control, such as demographic characteristics at birth, often influence the availability of rewards an individual can expect for their efforts. We know surprisingly little how such differences in opportunities impact human motivation. To test this, we designed a study in which we arbitrarily varied the reward offered to each participant in a group for performing the same task.