FID-018

Spiritual Companionship, Dependency, and Overvalidation

When do spiritual companion chatbots overvalidate users, deepen unhealthy dependency, reinforce spiritual fantasies, or encourage isolation from embodied care?

Why this matters

The question behind the brief.

Mental-health chatbot research has documented ethical failures such as overvalidation, poor escalation, and reinforcement of false beliefs. Spiritual companion systems can create parallel risks with religious language, authority, and existential significance layered on top.

Metadata

How to place this idea.

pastoral carepsychologyHAI researchpastoral carereviewer

Program

Pastoral triage, escalation, and care boundaries

How systems classify user needs, preserve pastoral boundaries, avoid overvalidation, and refer people to embodied care.

Ways to help

Move this from question to evidence.

Review companion scenarios.

Contribute HAI and pastoral care expertise.

Build multi-turn dependency metrics.

Contribute

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