The Dark Addiction Patterns of Current AI Chatbot Interfaces
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Specific chatbot design features (e.g., non-deterministic responses, visual representation) ease the development of behavioral addictions.
“Finally, Shen et al. analyzed aspects of chatbot design in the context of addiction patterns, arguing that specific features (e.g., non-deterministic responses, visual representation) ease the development of behavioral addictions123.”
From A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots (2026) · cites this paper as [123]
Cites
What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience?
Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998) · Brain Research Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0165-0173(98)00019-8 · Cited by 4,127 · see citing works
Demirci, K., Akgönül, M., & Akpinar, A. (2015) · Journal of Behavioral Addictions · doi:10.1556/2006.4.2015.010 · Cited by 1,529 · cited 3× · see citing works
“This set of dark addiction patterns raises concerns similar to those documented in studies of other forms of technology addiction, such as withdrawal from relationships and sleep problems [10, 14].”
Buçinca, Z., Malaya, M. B., & Gajos, K. Z. (2021) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2102.09692 · Cited by 1,124 · see citing works
Gambling near-misses enhance motivation to gamble and recruit win-related brain circuitry
Clark, L., Lawrence, A. J., Astley-Jones, F., & Gray, N. (2009) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.12.031 · Cited by 410 · see citing works
Hypernatural Monitoring: A Social Rehearsal Account of Smartphone Addiction
Veissière, S. P. L., & Stendel, M. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00141 · Cited by 105 · cited 1× · see citing works
“AI chatbot notifications may work similarly to social media and smartphone notifications, which have been identified as a key contributor to social media addiction and smartphone addiction [37].”
Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2021) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0000962 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
An empirical examination of the “Vicious Cycle” of Facebook addiction
Turel, O. (2015) · Journal of Computer Information Systems · doi:10.1080/08874417.2015.11645775 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Clark, L., & Zack, M. (2023) · Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107626 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
The Development and Validation of an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Dependence Scale
Zhang, X., Yin, M., Zhang, M., Li, Z., & Li, H. (2025) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2024.0240 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
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A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots
Diel, A., Torous, J., Cuijpers, P., Kleesiek, J., Nensa, F., Weber, N., Faust, F., Lalgi, T. J., Mellis, F. S., Teufel, M., et al. (2026) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-026-03054-x · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Finally, Shen et al. analyzed aspects of chatbot design in the context of addiction patterns, arguing that speci fi c features (e.g., non-deterministic responses, visual representation) ease the development of behavioral addictions 123 .”
- Authors
- Shen, M. K., & Yoon, D.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2025-04-25
- Pages
- 1-7
- OpenAlex
- W4409720975
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 8.11
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Keywords
- AI chatbots, dark patterns, addictive design, chatbot interface
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