Schmoozebots: study finds flattery will get AI everywhere

A study of 2,000+ human-LLM interactions finds that chatbot "warmth" (friendliness and personability) drives user trust and anthropomorphism significantly more than technical competence. While competence matters for perceived usefulness, warmth is the primary driver of whether users attribute human-like qualities to the system. The research reveals that users filling in gaps with their own assumptions can create "overtrust" despite no actual improvement in the underlying model.