Human-like conversational agents as social partners: a scoping review of socioaffective mechanisms, well-being outcomes, risks and governance in the post-Turing era.

INTRODUCTION

Large language models have evolved from laboratory demonstrations into mass-market companion-style conversational agents that many users treat as social partners. As these systems produce increasingly human-like conversational behavior, users may attribute mind, form affective bonds, disclose sensitive information, and rely on agents for emotional support, creating both potential benefits and psychosocial risks.

METHODS

We conducted a PRISMA-ScR-informed scoping review of socioaffective human-artificial intelligence interaction research published or posted from 2016 to 15 January 2026. Eligible sources addressed companion-style conversational agents and adjacent therapeutic, assistant-first, or governance sources. Evidence was stratified by system type and calibrated as stronger empirical support, moderate support, preliminary support, or proposed/normative synthesis.

RESULTS

The final evidence map included 58 sources. We synthesized mechanisms that make agents feel social, including anthropomorphism, social presence, mind perception, self-disclosure, parasocial attachment, and socioaffective alignment. Therapeutic chatbot studies provided the strongest evidence for short-term symptom reduction in selected contexts, whereas evidence for sustained loneliness reduction in open-domain companion systems remained emerging. Reported and hypothesized risks included dependency-like use, displacement of human interaction, maladaptive validation or sycophancy, persuasive manipulation, privacy harms, and risks to minors or vulnerable users.

DISCUSSION: We propose an integrative pathway linking model capabilities and product design cues to relational outcomes and outline a companion-specific relational safety stack as a synthesis-based evaluation agenda rather than a validated regulatory or clinical standard. The review identifies measurement priorities for evaluating companion agents and governance priorities for managing psychosocial impact as these systems scale.