Co-experiencing with AI: Effects on social bonding and empathy in human-AI relationships

When humans engage in co-experience by sharing the same event, their relationship typically grows closer. Given the increasingly deep integration of AI agents into human lives, we conducted three studies to examine whether the same impact exists in human-AI co-experience and to unravel its underlying mechanism. In Study 1, participants were directed to either co-experience an event with an embodied robot or experience it alone. All participants were randomly assigned to two groups, with the experiences featuring either positive or negative outcomes. Study 2 was identical to Study 1 in most aspects, except that participants were asked to imagine co-experiencing the event with a disembodied chatbot or alone. The results of both Study 1 and Study 2 consistently revealed that, compared with solitary experiences, human-AI co-experiences enhanced social bonding and increased empathy toward the AI agent, regardless of event outcomes. In Study 3, participants co-experienced the same event with a chatbot or alone and rated their perception of shared mental models. The results demonstrated that shared mental models mediated the effect of co-experience on human-AI relationships. Collectively, these findings highlight the positive impact of co-experiences on human-AI relationships, providing insights for fostering sustainable human-AI symbiosis.