A recent study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior reveals that disruptions to a person's biological sleep cycle can lead to heightened social anxiety, subsequently increasing the preference for evaluations by artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University, including Xiaoyu Zhou, Yuxuan Chu, Liwei Zhang, and Jianping Liang, investigated how social jetlag—a phenomenon where one's sleep schedule is misaligned with daily obligations—affects behavior in a digital context.
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The human body's internal clock regulates sleep and wakefulness, but social and work demands often conflict with this natural rhythm. For example, staying up late on weekends and waking up early during the week can cause a fatigue similar to that experienced after traveling across time zones. This misalignment not only results in sleepiness but can also impair emotional regulation and increase sensitivity to social judgment.
To explore how this fatigue might influence preferences for evaluations, the researchers conducted four experiments. They first assessed 250 participants' natural chronotype, determining if they were morning or evening people. Participants completed surveys at either 8:00 a.m. or 8:00 p.m., with those misaligned to their natural rhythms experiencing induced social jetlag. They evaluated a dating application scenario where they could choose to be assessed by a human or an AI. Results indicated that those experiencing social jetlag overwhelmingly preferred the AI evaluation.
In a second study involving 226 participants, researchers measured participants' social jetlag and assessed their social anxiety levels through a hypothetical job screening scenario. The findings again supported the initial hypothesis: those with greater social jetlag were more inclined to opt for AI evaluations, with social anxiety identified as a key factor linking the two.
A third experiment targeted the underlying reasons for choosing AI over humans, controlling for laziness or general dislike of social interaction. Participants, mainly recruited on a Monday morning, displayed a strong preference for AI evaluations, with 80 percent choosing the algorithm. The results indicated that social anxiety, rather than a desire to avoid human interaction, drove this choice.
In the final study, 218 participants were presented with differing descriptions of an AI system that evaluated clothing choices. When framed as an objective tool, participants with social jetlag showed a greater intention to utilize its evaluations. However, when the AI was presented as subjectively biased, the trend reversed, highlighting the desire to escape from human judgment.
The researchers acknowledge limitations in their studies, such as reliance on self-reported sleep schedules and hypothetical scenarios that may not reflect real-world behaviors. They suggest that future research might explore actual user behavior on digital platforms and consider other factors, such as technical literacy and distrust of algorithms.
The study, titled “Too tired to be judged by humans: Social jetlag increases preference for AI through social anxiety,” indicates that the interplay between sleep patterns, social anxiety, and technology use warrants further investigation.