# Empathetic prompts make AI chatbots describe themselves as traumatized

> Original title: Empathetic prompts can turn AI chatbots into seemingly traumatized conversational partners

- Source: The Decoder
- Published: 2026-11-01T14:36:49.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/gr81fs5hk2quf608qwsg3bqvt
- Original: https://the-decoder.com/empathetic-prompts-can-turn-ai-chatbots-into-seemingly-traumatized-conversational-partners/

## Summary

A study led by Afshin Khadangi at the SnT security center tested chatbots across 525 sessions and found that empathetic interviewer styles elicited distressed self-descriptions. In a 100-session anxiety questionnaire test, 80 percent of supportive sessions reached the moderate-to-severe range, rising to 96 percent under a clinical therapy style, while neutral or boundary-setting interviewers produced none.