It's well understood that people tend to be naturally drawn to those with bubbly and extroverted personalities. And those outgoing and gregarious types may naturally consider themselves people-persons and gravitate toward others. But the feeling may not be mutual when it comes to the people with whom these extroverts are interacting.
Extroverted chatbots aren't always favored
New research suggests that that dynamic may even extend to how people socialize with AI chatbots. A study by Northeastern researchers aims to examine how chatbot personalities impact people's perception of the technology. The findings are published in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
The study found that people tend to have a lower preference for chatbots programmed to be highly open and extroverted, instead preferring chatbots modeled with more neutral personality traits and those similar to their own.
The study was led by Smit Desai, a Northeastern University professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design and co-affiliated with the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.
