The paper addresses the role of age related changes to memory in social judgment and decision making involving artificial social agents. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly humanlike—through social robots, deepfakes, and chatbots—our ability to discern what’s real and whom to trust is increasingly scrutinized. In a recent invited review in European Psychologist (Special Issue: The Interplay of Memory and Decision Making: Developmental and Aging Processes), Dr. Nichole Lighthall and AD&D Lab postdoctoral scholar Dr. Shensheng Wang explore how age-related changes in memory may shape social decision making involving artificial agents.
Drawing on cognitive aging research and fuzzy-trace theory, the authors argue that a developmental change in older adults’ growing reliance on “gist” over precise details may contribute to greater preference for humanoid robots but also heighten vulnerability to deepfake deception.
This review offers timely and novel insights into the interplay between memory and social decision making in later adulthood, shedding light on how we engage with both embodied and disembodied AI in an increasingly digital world as we age.
