The attributional mechanism of the relational replacement asymmetry: A 2 (replacement type) × 2 (motive) experiment on adolescent friendship.
Year: 2026
Type: study-registration
Abstract: When an adolescent discovers that a close friend has confided a personal problem to someone (or something) other than them, they report elevated anti-mattering and loneliness. Prior data (Study 1, N = 282) showed that this harm is graded by the type of replacement: being displaced by a same-age peer hurts more than being displaced by an AI chatbot, which in turn hurts more than not being displaced at all (peer > AI > self). The present study isolates the psychological mechanism. We manipulate two factors—replacement type (AI vs. peer) and the friend's stated motive (protective vs. rejecting)—to test whether the peer–AI asymmetry is driven by motive attribution.
Source: Open Science Framework
Authors: Weixun Zhao, Fangfang Wen
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224676918