Sharing the Real You Is Easier with a Virtual Human

Why disclosing personal health details is easier with artificial humans.

Reviewed by Lybi Ma

Key points

• Virtual humans that are viewed as safe, supportive, interaction partners enhance sharing private information.
• With AI, patients are less concerned with impression management and more willing to disclose.
• Some people are more comfortable sharing private details with AI, even knowing it will be passed on.

As a career sex crime prosecutor, I am well aware of victim reluctance to disclose personal details of sexual assault. Many survivors are understandably reluctant to reveal particularly traumatic, embarrassing, shameful, or humiliating aspects of an assault. Yet when post-assault medical care is required, treating physicians and staff need to know the details to ensure adequate medical care. The same type of transparency is vitally important in all other types of medical treatment as well.

For most people, one of the most sensitive areas within which we share information is personal health. Humanity is the great equalizer in the sense that everyone has some type of physical, mental, or emotional vulnerability they would rather not discuss. We fear rejection, judgment, social disapproval, stigma, or alienation—particularly when facing a rare or unusual diagnosis of some kind. Yet effective health care and treatment require honesty and transparency. Thankfully, within the modern world of artificial intelligence, options exist.

Artificial Assistance Eliciting Private Information

Gale M. Lucas and colleagues (2014) explored the willingness of people to disclose information to virtual humans.[I] Recognizing patient reluctance to be completely honest within health and mental health settings, researchers found that within clinical interviews, virtual humans that were viewed as safe, supportive, interaction partners had the potential to enhance patient willingness to share information.

Providing accurate information is vitally important because patient care decisions depend on accurate health information. Lucas and colleagues recognize that patients attempt to make a good impression because they fear being viewed negatively by their healthcare providers and are particularly reluctant to disclose information that is stigmatizing or sensitive—which might constitute the most important information for a provider to know.

In their study, participants were led to believe their virtual interviewer was either automated or controlled by a human being. As predicted, Lucas and colleagues found that participants who thought they were communicating with a computer had less fear of self-disclosure, were less concerned with impression management, presented more intense displays of sadness, and were viewed as more willing to disclose. The researchers note these findings suggest that using virtual humans in such settings can improve truthful patient information.

One of the interesting aspects of this study was the unsolicited anecdotal remarks of the participants. They admitted being more willing to share information if nobody else was watching or listening, and when they believed, they were talking to a virtual human, made comments such as, ‘‘This is way better than talking to a person. I don’t really feel comfortable talking about personal stuff to other people.’’

Trending Toward Transparency

Providing the option of disclosing information to an AI conversation partner is a trend within many different industries, from policing to patient care, to elicit valuable information people are reluctant to share. Even when disclosers know what they reveal will eventually be received and reviewed by a live person, the initial revelations are still easier in a setting where they aren’t faced (literally) with human expressions signaling shock, revulsion, discomfort, judgment, or evidence of personal triggering in the listener.

Although AI can never replace the value of human bonding, comfort, compassion, empathy, and all the other important aspects of connecting through sharing confidential information, it can assist professionals in a wide variety of industries to help people in need, facilitating health and healing.