The social cognitive mechanisms of Human-AI interactions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an important part in daily life supporting and guiding the many decisions we take, ranging from our preferred web-series to medical diagnoses. Whereas we intensively interact with AI applications, the cooperation between humans and AI is poorly understood. At the same time, there is frequent speculation that AI makes us dumb and forms a potential threat to our socio-economic well-being, for instance, by replacing labour or limiting our free-will. New AI solutions are often met with reluctance by target users in domains, such as health, finance, education,… A scientific understanding of the impact of AI on social and cognitive well-being of humans is thus imperative to move beyond speculation and offer real solutions that enhance the relation between humans and AI.

This long-term research program aims at investigating several aspects of the relation between human and AI, such as trust and intentionality. There are currently four research projects that aim to clarify how humans perceive, trust and interact with AI:

  1. Social trust and Cooperating with AI;
  2. Advice Taking and Decision Support from AI;
  3. Perceived Intentionality of AI; and
  4. Outsourcing decision-making to AI agents.

Involved researchers

  • dr. Baptist Liefooghe

    Associate Professor
  • I am an associate professor with a special interest in social and cognitive aspects of Human-AI interactions. I am co-directing the GoalLab with Ruud Custers

  • dr. ir. Ruud Custers

    Associate Professor
  • I am an associate professor, working on goal-directed behaviour, habits, and the role of consciousness. I am involved in various projects exploring these issues in relation to AI and fear-learning. I am co-directing the GoalLab with Baptist Liefooghe

  • Y. (Roxy) Zhang

    PhD Candidate
  • I am a PhD candidate in Psychology. My doctoral research explores how trust is formed and dynamically adjusted through repeated interactions with AI systems, particularly in response to feedback

  • Livia ReguÈ™ MSc

    PhD Candidate
  • I am a PhD candidate in the Goallab at the Psychology Department. Being interested in the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in goal pursuit and its impact on human psychology, I investigate this topic through behavioural and psychophysiological studies

  • Timea Nagy

    PhD Candidate
  • I am a PhD Candidate, interested studying the psychological aspects of human-AI interactions. I am currently researching intentionality perceptions in AI agents

  • prof. dr. Henk Aarts

    Professor
  • I am a professor in Psychology, interested in human habits, goals, and autonomy. I am involved in several projects studying basic and applied questions, such as intentionality, Human-AI interactions and health

  • dr. Hyunji Kim

    Assistant Professor
  • I am an Assistant Professor at SHOP with research interests in decision-making, self-representation, and social comparison. My current work focuses on the social-cognitive structure of the decision-making self and promoting healthier social media use to mitigate comparison effects

  • dr. Ruud Hortensius

    Associate Professor

Collaboration partners

Funding

This project is funded by:

  • Starter and Incentive Grants
  • Werkdrukimpuls fonds
  • Focus Area on Human-Centered AI
  • EWUU alliance
  • NWO