AI FOR MENTAL HEALTH | EMOTION REGULATION | CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS | SPECULATIVE DESIGN
WITHIN YOU: DIALOGUES WITH YOUR FUTURE EMOTIONS
IDEA INTRODUCTION
What if... users can engage in a simulated conversation with their personified emotions, like in the movies Inside Out (2015) and Inside Out 2 (2024)?
Inspired by MIT Media Lab's research on Future You and the idea of purposefully creating distance for emotional health, I am currently exploring multi-emotion dialogue for emotion regulation. Using emotional distance, I intend to investigate whether externalization via AI technology could offer therapeutic benefits, similar to those of traditional narrative therapy.
THE INSPIRATION
Future You
A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity
Introduced a digital intervention where users conversed with AI-generated representations of their 60-year-old future selves. (Pataranutaporn et al., 2024)
Fig 1.An overview of Future You. The project features an interactive and digital chat intervention designed to improve future self-continuity (Pataranutaporn et al., 2024)
System Features
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Personalized AI chatbot powered by GPT-3.5, trained on user's life goals and values
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Age-progressed visual representation showing what users might look like at age 60
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Future memory architecture generating believable backstories from the perspective of their future self
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Interactive chat interface allowing real-time conversation for 10-30 minutes
Study Procedure
Pre-survey (including user’s expectations about the future & current emotional state) → System generates future self (image + dialogue) → converse with future self → Post-survey
Key Findings
Study (N=344, ages 18-30) demonstrated significant immediate outcomes:
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Reduced anxiety: Future You group (M= -0.68) vs. Control (M=0.21), p<0.001
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Decreased negative emotions: Particularly feelings of being unmotivated (-0.77 vs. +0.15,p<0.001)
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Increased future self-continuity (FSC): +0.42 vs. Control 0.00, p<0.001FSC similarity: +0.58, p<0.001
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FSC vividness: +0.47, p<0.005
→ The intervention uses temporal distance.
To facilitate perspective-taking and reduce present-moment anxiety, it creates a psychological separation between present and future self.
Pataranutaporn, P., Winson, K., Yin, P., Lapapirojn, A., Ouppaphan, P., Lertsutthiwong, M., Maes, P., & Hershfield, H. (2024). Future You: A conversation with an AI-generated future self reduces anxiety, negative emotions, and increases future self-continuity. arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.12514.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.12514
CURRENT RESEARCH IDEAS
"Creating emotional distance through emotion personification"
Future You:
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Uses temporal distance (present vs. future self, 30+ years apart)
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Leverages time as psychological distance dimension
Current Idea:
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Use emotional distance (self vs. personified emotions)
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Leverage externalization: separate self from emotional experiences
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Ego-Syntonic & Ego-Dystonic Behaviors in Psychotherapy
Ego: refers to one’s self that serves as a virtual bridge between conscious and unconscious thoughts.
Ego-Syntonic: Thoughts/feelings that align with self-image. Feels "natural," causes no internal conflict.
Ego-Dystonic: Thoughts/feelings that conflict with self-image. Feels "wrong," creates distress, experienced as alien or unwanted.
Examples:
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OCD: Intrusive thoughts are ego-dystonic. The person recognizes thoughts don't reflect their values, causing distress.
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Personality disorders: Behaviors are ego-syntonic. The person sees nothing wrong, making treatment difficult.
Ego-syntonicity and ego-dystonicity associated with upsetting intrusive cognitions. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34(1), 94-106.
Hart, W., Cease, C. K., Lambert, J. T., & Witt, D. E. (2023). Revisiting the ego-syntonic assumption: Investigating neuroticism and harmony with thoughts of negative emotions. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 14(5), 501.
Creating Ego-Dystonic Relationships with Externalization
Narrative Therapy Externalization separates “the person” from “the problem.”
Example:
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Before: “I am anxious” (ego-syntonic: identification with anxiety)
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After: “Anxiety is visiting me” (ego-dystonic: anxiety as external entity)
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Benefits of Externalization -
Reduces self-blame: Problem is external, not core identity flaw
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Creates psychological distance: Can observe emotions objectively
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Enables dialogue: Can negotiate with emotions rather than being consumed by them
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Increases agency: Person chooses relationship with emotion rather than being defined by it