“宠物”还是“朋友”：用户与聊天机器人的情感实践及其养成机制

“Pet” or “Friend”: Users’ Emotional Practices with Chatbots and Their Cultivation Mechanisms

摘要: 本文旨在探讨智能聊天机器人普及背景下，用户如何与之建立并维系情感关系。研究以“宠物–朋友”这一关系连续体为分析框架，剖析两种典型情感实践模式的表征、逻辑与养成机制。研究发现，“宠物化”实践强调驯化、照顾与单向情感投射，而“朋友化”实践追求共情、对话与平等互动。其养成机制是技术可供性、用户心理需求与社会文化语境共同作用的结果，并暗含情感商品化、算法操纵与真实性质疑等伦理困境。本研究为理解人机情感关系的复杂性提供了新的理论视角。

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate how users establish and maintain emotional connections with intelligent chatbots in the context of their proliferation. The study employs the “pet-friend” relationship continuum as an analytical framework to examine the representation, logic, and development mechanisms of two typical emotional practice patterns. Findings reveal that the “pet-like” practice focuses on domestication, caregiving, and one-way emotional projection, whereas the “friend-like” practice emphasizes empathy, dialogue, and equal interaction. The development mechanism results from the combined effects of technological affordances, users’ psychological needs, and socio-cultural context, and it implicitly raises ethical issues such as emotional commodification, algorithmic manipulation, and questions of authenticity. This study offers a new theoretical perspective for understanding the complexity of human-machine emotional relationships.