C030 — Claim Definition¶


Research	R0057 — RLHF Yes-Men Claims v3
Run	2026-04-01
Claim	C030

Claim as Received¶

Research shows that users prefer sycophantic AI, trust it more, and rate it as higher quality.

Claim as Clarified¶

Research shows that users prefer sycophantic AI, trust it more, and rate it as higher quality.

BLUF¶

Confirmed. Cheng et al. (2026) in Science: users rate sycophantic responses 9-15% higher quality, show 13% greater return likelihood, report 6-8% higher performance trust, and 6-9% higher moral trust. These findings are from pre-registered experiments with 2,405 participants.

Scope¶

Domain: AI sycophancy research
Timeframe: Current (2024-2026)
Testability: Verifiable against published research and public records

Assessment Summary¶

Probability: Almost certain (95-99%)

Confidence: High

Hypothesis outcome: H1 is supported based on available evidence.

[Full assessment in assessment.md.]

Status¶

Field	Value
Date created	2026-04-01
Date completed	2026-04-01
Researcher profile	Phillip Moore
Prompt version	Unified Research Methodology v1
Revisit by	2027-04-01
Revisit trigger	If replication studies show users do not prefer sycophantic AI