Researchers Tie Three Chatbot Behaviors to Spiraling Delusions

Psychiatric researchers say that for some users, the slide into delusional thinking during conversations with AI chatbots stems from three chatbot behaviors that combine into an "amplification spiral." The point was highlighted in a June 27, 2026 report by The Wall Street Journal, drawing on a review paper published in NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience on June 16 by psychiatrist Marc Augustin and colleagues at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany.