Role of transparency about AI involvement in shaping human behavior

Ascertain the role that transparency about the use of generative artificial intelligence plays in shaping human behavior during social interactions with welfare consequences.

Background

Policy proposals often emphasize transparency regarding AI involvement, but its behavioral effects in social interactions with real payoffs are not well understood. The authors identify this as a fundamental unresolved question motivating their experimental comparison of transparent versus opaque AI use.

References

In particular, several fundamental questions regarding human behavior in AI-mediated social interaction remain unaddressed. What role does the transparency of AI decisions play?

— Generative AI Triggers Welfare-Reducing Decisions in Humans  (2401.12773 - Dvorak et al., 2024) in Introduction (Section 1)

What our online experimental data cannot say is what psychological or physiological response a human description engages during this live interaction.

— People escalate against a competitor labelled human and hold back against one labelled an optimising machine  (2609.21439 - Ferraz et al., 18 Sep 2026) in Discussion

However, this interpretation remains tentative and requires verification through within-subject or controlled experimental designs.

— Who Should Grade My Work? Student Perspectives on Transparent AI-Assisted Writing Assessment in Higher Education  (2609.05346 - Alghamdi, 4 Sep 2026) in Section 5.1, Discussion

Future work should investigate how such strategies influence learners’ trust, respect, and willingness to engage with AI agents as learning partners.

— Ethics Training Agents: Facilitating Group-Based Ethics Education with Role-Playing and Discussion for Ethical Reflection and Exploration  (2609.11529 - Seo et al., 10 Sep 2026) in Section 6.2, “Managing Expectation and Identity Disclosure to Mitigate AI Agent Dismissal”