AI Companions and Loneliness: Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Synthetic Mindfulness and Exploring Its Role in Alleviating Loneliness
The rise of AI companions has sparked interest in their potential to alleviate the growing social problem of loneliness, yet evidence of their effectiveness remains unsettled. Drawing on social surrogacy theory with a theories‐in‐use approach, this research introduces synthetic mindfulness, defined as consumers' judg...