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Most people do not realize when a personal message they receive was written by AI, study finds

Phys · · 792 words · By Andras Molnar
Impact of AI on Human Communication

Two experiments involving over 1,300 participants found that most people are unaware of how easily AI-generated text can be created, even when they use AI themselves. While participants rated AI-generated messages negatively when authorship was disclosed, this negative judgment was not significantly different from the impressions formed when authorship was undisclosed. The research suggests that people rely on non-textual cues, like in-person interaction, for judging sincerity.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-04-people-personal-message-written-ai.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

psychologyDetected Techniques

warning
Loaded Language 60% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

13 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

info Single Source 5
verified Verified By Reference 3
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help Insufficient Evidence 2
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“Two new experiments show that most people do not even consider that a personal message could be AI-generated, even when they themselves use artificial intelligence to write.”
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web search NEUTRAL — Two new experiments show that most people do not even consider that a personal message could be AI-generated, even when they themselves use artificial intelligence to write.
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-people-personal-message-writte…
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web search NEUTRAL — Even frequent users of artificial intelligence fail to spot AI-written messages in their daily lives.Because text-generating programs remove this effort, the researchers wanted to know if the availabi…
https://www.psypost.org/people-remain-blissfully-ignorant-of…
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web search NEUTRAL — I believer that as more people use Ai to strive for perfection, the less authentic they become. I have personally experienced this with the emails, posts, and messages I send every day. The more I use…
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/conik-runyon-75b1b5175_authen…
verified
“To see how people judge someone based on their writing in the age of ChatGPT, my colleague Jiaqi Zhu and I recruited more than 1,300 U.S.-based participants, ages 18 to 84, and showed them AI-generated messages like an apology sent in an email.”
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI. It was released in November 2022. It uses large language models—specifically generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs)—to …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — ChatGPT Atlas is an AI browser developed by OpenAI. It is based on Chromium and is currently only available on macOS. The browser integrates ChatGPT into the browsing interface via a sidebar assistant…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT_Atlas
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The usage of ChatGPT in education has sparked considerable debate and exploration. ChatGPT is a chatbot based on large language models (LLMs) that was released by OpenAI in November 2022. ChatGPT's ad…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT_in_education
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“We split our volunteers into four groups: Some people saw the messages with no information about who or what wrote them, as in everyday life. Others were told the messages were definitely written by a human, definitely AI-generated, or that the source could be either.”
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web search NEUTRAL — Participants were split into two groups, each assigned two positive and two negative traits. They rated their own group and estimated ratings for the opposite group, including the traits' minimum and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_group_paradigm
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web search NEUTRAL — The participants were divided into groups of eight, allegedly on the basis of how they scored in a series of tests where they were told their visual judgement was to be gauged according to their indiv…
https://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/intergroup…
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web search NEUTRAL — The CD contained either the song selection or 5 minutes of silence. They were then escorted into a different room, where they were greeted by a research assistant who conducted the experiment. The res…
https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/missouri-western-stat…
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“We found a clear "AI disclosure penalty." When people found out a message was AI-generated, they rated the sender much more negatively—"lazy," "insincere," "lack of effort"—than when they believed that the same text was written by a person—"genuine," "grateful," "thoughtful."”
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web search NEUTRAL — The interplay between status and perceptions of a message may in fact be quite complex, as other research has found that if a message violates social norms (e.g. starting with 'Hi' without a name) sen…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245195882…
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web search NEUTRAL — New research reveals that using abbreviations in text messages can make texters appear insincere and reduce response rates, challenging assumptions about casual communication and suggesting a link bet…
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/11/texting-abbr…
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web search NEUTRAL — As some teachers start to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their work, a majority are uncertain about or see downsides to the general use of AI tools in K-12 education, according to a Pew Res…
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/15/a-quarter…
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“But here is the twist: The participants who were not told anything about authorship formed impressions that were just as positive as those from people who were told the messages were genuinely human.”
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web search NEUTRAL — Impression formation in social psychology refers to the processes by which different pieces of knowledge about another are combined into a global or summary impression. Social psychologist Solomon Asc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression_formation
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web search NEUTRAL — In Asch's experiments, the primacy effect in impression formation consists in the fact that people's impressions about a target individual are influenced by the valence order of the descriptors charac…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001002772…
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web search NEUTRAL — Review the data showing the impact of subliminal messaging on participants' choices and answer the following questions. Based on the data provided, what did the researchers find? What happened with pa…
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/tutors-problems/Psychology/52866…
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“To our even bigger surprise, we found little to no effect. People who use generative AI quite frequently in their daily lives—at least every other day—did penalize AI use slightly less when AI authorship was disclosed, compared with people who never or rarely use AI.”
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), alignment aims to steer AI systems toward a person's or group's intended goals, preferences, or ethical principles. An AI system is considered aligned if …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Artificial intelligence visual art, or AI art, is visual artwork generated or enhanced through the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) programs, most commonly using text-to-image models. Th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_art
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ai Yazawa (矢沢 あい, Yazawa Ai; born March 7, 1967) is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator. Yazawa debuted as a manga artist with her short story Ano Natsu (1985). She gained mainstream popularity in…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Yazawa
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“But participants were no more skeptical, by default: When authorship was not disclosed, heavy AI users, light AI users, and nonusers all tended to assume the text was written by a person and formed essentially the same impressions.”
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — AI slop (also known as slop content or simply as slop) is digital content made with generative artificial intelligence that is perceived as lacking in effort, quality, or meaning, and produced in high…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Anthropic PBC is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company headquartered in San Francisco. It has developed a range of large language models (LLMs) named Claude and focuses on AI safety. Anthro…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Perplexity AI, Inc., or simply Perplexity, is an American privately held software company offering a web search engine that processes user queries and synthesizes responses. Perplexity products use la…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplexity_AI
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“For example, widespread AI use has already prompted employers to discount the value of cover letters from job applicants. Instead, they are relying more on personal recommendations from an applicant's current supervisor or connections made through in-person networking.”
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web search NEUTRAL — The meaning of WIDESPREAD is widely diffused or prevalent. How to use widespread in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/widespread
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web search NEUTRAL — WIDESPREAD definition: spread over or open, or occupying a wide space. See examples of widespread used in a sentence.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/widespread
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web search NEUTRAL — WIDESPREAD definition: 1. existing or happening in many places and/or among many people: 2. existing or happening in many…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/widespre…
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“Studies show it makes job applicants seem less desirable and employees seem less competent.”
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“Readers of creative writing perceive AI users as less creative and inauthentic.”
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“People see personal apologies and corporate apologies that stem from AI as less effective.”
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“In general, disclosing AI use decreases trust and undermines legitimacy.”
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“Yet without disclosure, there is clear evidence that most people cannot reliably detect AI-generated text, even with the help of detection tools, especially when the text is a mix of human-written and AI-generated content.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.