# Writing with AI Lowers Psychological Ownership, but Longer Prompts Can Help

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03108 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03108/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 3 Apr 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [CollabStory: Multi-LLM Collaborative Story Generation and Authorship Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12665/) (2024)
- [Which Contributions Deserve Credit? Perceptions of Attribution in Human-AI Co-Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18357/) (2025)
- [Who Owns the Text? Design Patterns for Preserving Authorship in AI-Assisted Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.10236/) (2026)
- [Effects of Varying LLM Access on Essay Writing Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00250/) (2026)
- [Interaction Techniques that Encourage Longer Prompts Can Improve Psychological Ownership when Writing with AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.03670/) (2025)
- [Can AI be a moral victim? The role of moral patiency and ownership perceptions in ethical judgments of using AI-generated content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.26956/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The feeling of something belonging to someone is called "psychological ownership." A common assumption is that writing with generative AI lowers psychological ownership, but the extent to which this occurs and the role of prompt length are unclear. We report on two experiments to examine the relationship between psychological ownership and prompt length. Participants wrote short stories either completely by themselves or wrote prompts of varying lengths. Results show that when participants wrote longer prompts, they had higher levels of psychological ownership. Their comments suggest they thought more about their prompts, often adding more details about the plot. However, benefits plateaued when prompt length was 75-100% of the target story length. To encourage users to write longer prompts, we propose augmenting the prompt submission button so it must be held down a long time if the prompt is short. Results show that this technique is effective at increasing prompt length.