Open access paper is available here: academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-...
We are incredibly grateful to our entire review team at Journal of Consumer Research, and to Jacob (Yanco) Goldenberg (Editor) and Stefano Puntoni (Associate Editor) in particular. (7/7)
Instead, the AI disclosures change people's parasocial connection — those one-sided emotional bonds we form with creators we follow. It is this reduced parasocial connection that explains lower engagement. (4/7)
Our paper quantifies the potential impact of disclosures on a platform level and discusses how disclosures can be designed to mitigate engagement differences and other policy implications. (6/7)
AI disclosure labels reduce engagement. But the reason why is where it gets interesting. We found that it's not because content with the AIGC label is objectively worse quality. Moreover, the AI disclosure quality doesn't change people's perceptions of quality. (2/7)
Because disclosures reduce engagement — and engagement drives monetization and algorithmic reach — creators face a real incentive to hide or downplay their AI use. If creators find ways to subvert their AI usage, policies designed to create transparency may inadvertently undermine it. (5/7)
Sometimes work is hard and sometimes it’s fun. Today I got to celebrate with Steve Carney and Ignacio Riveros - 2 great USC PhD students I’ve been lucky to work with - as our paper got accepted to the Journal of Consumer Research! & just in time for Ignacio to graduate and head to a job at Meta!