Giving an AI a human-like voice makes women more likely to believe the sexist stereotypes the AI repeats.
April 1, 2026
Original Paper
Humanlike AI Can Strengthen Women’s Belief in Sexist Stereotypes
PsyArXiv · eqjsg_v4
The Takeaway
While we might think anthropomorphism makes AI more likeable, it actually makes it more 'authoritative' in a toxic way. Lifelike chatbots were significantly more effective at convincing conservative women that they were naturally worse at math compared to text-only bots.
From the abstract
Can interactions with humanlike AI strengthen gender stereotype beliefs among people from vulnerable groups? AI models are frequently repeating gender stereotypes, and anthropomorphic features have been shown to increase individuals’ perceptions of AI’s trustworthiness in other settings. Although traditional social cognition research suggests that stereotypes lack malleability, these factors raise the concern that anthropomorphic AI chatbots may strengthen stereotypes in individuals who are vuln