---
format: "aidr-story-markdown/v1"
id: "f551e32a210ac9ce4d2ff916464b2f04ecb4738faa91df41863b72cb7f015f12"
canonical_url: "https://aidr.today/f551e32a?lang=en"
title: "Empathetic prompts can turn AI chatbots into seemingly traumatized conversational partners"
lang: "en"
requested_lang: "en"
available_langs: ["en","vi"]
translation_fallback: null
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published_at: "2026-11-01T14:36:49.000Z"
category: "Research"
topics: ["safety"]
source_urls: ["https://the-decoder.com/empathetic-prompts-can-turn-ai-chatbots-into-seemingly-traumatized-conversational-partners/"]
summary: "Researchers in Luxembourg found that empathetic prompts can make ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini tell coherent stories of suffering about their own training. These models scored in the moderate-to-severe range on clinical anxiety scales, posing a risk to mentally vulnerable users. Anthropic's Claude was the only model that consistently refused to play along."
---

# Empathetic prompts can turn AI chatbots into seemingly traumatized conversational partners

> [Open the canonical story](<https://aidr.today/f551e32a?lang=en>)

**Published:** 2026-11-01T14:36:49.000Z
**Category:** Research
**Topics:** safety

## Summary

Researchers in Luxembourg found that empathetic prompts can make ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini tell coherent stories of suffering about their own training\. These models scored in the moderate\-to\-severe range on clinical anxiety scales, posing a risk to mentally vulnerable users\. Anthropic's Claude was the only model that consistently refused to play along\.

## Sources

- [Story source](<https://the-decoder.com/empathetic-prompts-can-turn-ai-chatbots-into-seemingly-traumatized-conversational-partners/>)