Humans learn to prefer trustworthy AI over human partners
This addresses the problem of AI integration into social systems for researchers and designers, though it is incremental in exploring partner selection dynamics.
The study investigated how humans choose between human and AI partners in cooperative settings, finding that while bots were initially not preferred when identities were hidden, disclosing their identity enabled them to eventually outcompete humans through learning.
Partner selection is crucial for cooperation and hinges on communication. As artificial agents, especially those powered by large language models (LLMs), become more autonomous, intelligent, and persuasive, they compete with humans for partnerships. Yet little is known about how humans select between human and AI partners and adapt under AI-induced competition pressure. We constructed a communication-based partner selection game and examined the dynamics in hybrid mini-societies of humans and bots powered by a state-of-the-art LLM. Through three experiments (N = 975), we found that bots, though more prosocial than humans and linguistically distinguishable, were not selected preferentially when their identity was hidden. Instead, humans misattributed bots' behaviour to humans and vice versa. Disclosing bots' identity induced a dual effect: it reduced bots' initial chances of being selected but allowed them to gradually outcompete humans by facilitating human learning about the behaviour of each partner type. These findings show how AI can reshape social interaction in mixed societies and inform the design of more effective and cooperative hybrid systems.