# What People Share With a Robot When Feeling Lonely and Stressed and How It Helps Over Time

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.02991 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02991/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 3 Apr 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [DialogGuard: Multi-Agent Psychosocial Safety Evaluation of Sensitive LLM Responses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02282/) (2025)
- [Do We Talk to Robots Like Therapists, and Do They Respond Accordingly? Language Alignment in AI Emotional Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.16473/) (2025)
- [A Multimodal Neural Network for Recognizing Subjective Self-Disclosure Towards Social Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10828/) (2025)
- [FAIR_XAI: Improving Multimodal Foundation Model Fairness via Explainability for Wellbeing Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.23786/) (2026)
- [Why did My Robot Just Change Personality? Prompting Guidelines for a Grounded Robot Persona in LLM-Based HRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26182/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Loneliness and stress are prevalent among young adults and are linked to significant psychological and health-related consequences. Social robots may offer a promising avenue for emotional support, especially when considering the ongoing advancements in conversational AI. This study investigates how repeated interactions with a social robot influence feelings of loneliness and perceived stress, and how such feelings are reflected in the themes of user disclosures towards the robot. Participants engaged in a five-session robot-led intervention, where a large language model powered QTrobot facilitated structured conversations designed to support cognitive reappraisal. Results from linear mixed-effects models show significant reductions in both loneliness and perceived stress over time. Additionally, semantic clustering of 560 user disclosures towards the robot revealed six distinct conversational themes. Results from a Kruskal-Wallis H-test demonstrate that participants reporting higher loneliness and stress more frequently engaged in socially focused disclosures, such as friendship and connection, whereas lower distress was associated with introspective and goal-oriented themes (e.g., academic ambitions). By exploring both how the intervention affects well-being, as well as how well-being shapes the content of robot-directed conversations, we aim to capture the dynamic nature of emotional support in huma-robot interaction.