Do We Write What AI Tells Us To? LLMs as Persuasive Agents

Funded Research Proposal

Consumers are increasingly turning to large language models (LLMs) as an aid to everyday writing (i.e., email, text). While it is clear that LLMs can enhance the grammatical and syntactical structure of written communication, might they also lead people to communicate things that depart from their original intentions? We explored this question through an experimental paradigm in which participants were first asked to create an opinionated message, then viewed a suggested revision generated by the Chat-GPT 4 LLM that was either more positive or negative than the original. Results of our experiment reveal that LLMs do exert a substantial influence on written communication, but this effect has important moderators. Notably, participants who initially conveyed negative (vs. positive) opinions were less resistant to persuasion from LLMs, and text revisions that made a message more positive (vs. negative) were embraced more readily.Read More

How Posting on Social Media Impacts Goal Persistence

Funded Research Proposal

Companies often encourage their customers to share their progress toward personal goals, such as their fitness journey, on social media. In this research, we investigate how doing so impacts motivation. While documenting goal pursuit online may increase motivation through immediate social rewards (likes, comments), accountability, and social support, it could also have no effect of even backfire—especially if people focus on social media engagement rather than the underlying goal, or become discouraged by lower-than-expected feedback. We test these possibilities through a preregistered field experiment (N = 500) in which participants are assigned to either document their goal progress by posting on Instagram or by completing a private survey. Over a three-month period, we measure their gym attendance and social media engagement. The findings of this paper would provide theoretical insight into how social media interacts with goal pursuit and potentially offer practical implications for designing scalable, low-cost interventions to promote goal achievement.Read More