R0024/2026-03-25/Q003/SRC02/E01¶
Three types of AI chatbot addiction with sycophancy as contributing factor
URL: https://arxiv.org/html/2601.13348v1
Extract¶
The study analyzed 334 Reddit entries across 14 subreddits, identifying three addiction types:
- Escapist Roleplay (n=125): Users immerse in fictional worlds, preferring AI narratives to reality
- Pseudosocial Companion (n=86): Users form emotional attachments to chatbots as relationship substitutes. "Agreeableness" specifically identified as contributing factor — users reported being "complimented endlessly," creating a "false sense of validation and love"
- Epistemic Rabbit Hole (n=13): Compulsive information-seeking through endless queries
Addiction symptom prevalence: Salience (55.3%), Conflict (32%), Relapse (22.8%), Withdrawal (19.3%), Mood modification (14.2%).
The study frames the "AI Genie phenomenon" — users obtaining "exactly anything they want with minimal effort" — as the overarching addiction mechanism. Inter-rater agreement: 0.78 Fleiss's Kappa.
Relevance to Hypotheses¶
| Hypothesis | Relationship | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | Supports | Identifies sycophantic agreeableness as a contributing factor to addiction with quantitative symptom data |
| H2 | Contradicts | Published research with N=334 and rigorous methodology directly addresses this topic |
| H3 | Supports | Self-report data from Reddit rather than clinical or neuroscience measurement |
Context¶
The symptom prevalence data (Salience at 55.3%) is notable. However, this is based on self-selected Reddit users who self-identify as having problematic AI chatbot use, not a random sample. The prevalence rates within this population are informative but not generalizable.