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<p>The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into workplace environments has created contexts in which human employees increasingly engage in performance-based upward social comparisons with AI coworkers. Yet the role of AI as a comparison target in such workplace contexts remains relatively unexplored. Drawing on the moral psychology of AI, the present study examines how upward social comparisons with AI coworkers affect employee job burnout, highlighting the mediating role of perceived shame and the moderating influence of AI anthropomorphism. Employing one field study (Study 1) involving employees in real-world organizational settings and three controlled experiments (Studies 2–4), the findings consistently demonstrate that upward social comparisons with AI coworkers, compared to human coworkers, elicit weaker perceived shame, thereby reducing job burnout. However, when AI coworkers are highly anthropomorphized, these comparisons intensify feelings of shame and consequently increase job burnout. This research advances understanding of human–AI interaction in the workplace by revealing how competitive social comparisons with AI coworkers reshape moral emotional responses and employee burnout.</p>

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Feeling Ashamed of AI? How Upward Social Comparison with AI Coworkers Influences Employee Job Burnout

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月25日

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  • Yidan Ma,
  • Jian Li

摘要

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into workplace environments has created contexts in which human employees increasingly engage in performance-based upward social comparisons with AI coworkers. Yet the role of AI as a comparison target in such workplace contexts remains relatively unexplored. Drawing on the moral psychology of AI, the present study examines how upward social comparisons with AI coworkers affect employee job burnout, highlighting the mediating role of perceived shame and the moderating influence of AI anthropomorphism. Employing one field study (Study 1) involving employees in real-world organizational settings and three controlled experiments (Studies 2–4), the findings consistently demonstrate that upward social comparisons with AI coworkers, compared to human coworkers, elicit weaker perceived shame, thereby reducing job burnout. However, when AI coworkers are highly anthropomorphized, these comparisons intensify feelings of shame and consequently increase job burnout. This research advances understanding of human–AI interaction in the workplace by revealing how competitive social comparisons with AI coworkers reshape moral emotional responses and employee burnout.