A field experiment of social influence and behavioral contagion with bots on Reddit

Key point As AI bots operate alongside humans online, policymakers fear users are easily manipulated.

As AI-driven bots increasingly operate alongside humans in hybrid social systems, scholars and policymakers are concerned about susceptibility to behavioral manipulation.

Key point Open question: does influence from bots versus humans differ by the rationale given for an action?

The specific question is whether symbolic awards from apparent humans versus bots, justified by different rationales, alter recipients' subsequent behavior on Reddit.

Key point Pre-registered Reddit field experiment with nine conditions of symbolic awards to inexperienced users.

The authors ran a pre-registered Reddit field experiment (ethical approval LSE Ref.490807) with nine conditions: four award rationales x two account types (apparent human vs. bot), plus a no-intervention control.

Key point Human or bot accounts gave awards with logic, lottery, emotional, or moral rationales.

We let apparent human and bot accounts give symbolic awards to users with one of four rationales: praising the recipient's logical argument, emotional sensitivity, or moral integrity, or explaining that the award resulted from a random draw in a lottery.

Key point Awards did not raise activity; bot lottery awards backfired, reducing contributions and text length.

We find that awards do not increase user activity and downstream impact, and awards from bots with the lottery rationale can in fact reduce them.

Key point Users were more likely to send private thank-you replies to human than to bot accounts.

Recipients were significantly more likely to send private thank-you replies to human than to bot accounts.

Key point Findings suggest users are resilient to simple manipulation from platform algorithms and agents.

These findings highlight the possible resilience of online users to simple behavioral manipulation from platform algorithms and artificial agents.