SJ
SHAYCE JOHNSTON, PHD
RESEARCHER. EDUCATOR. THOUGHT LEADER.
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN-AI DYNAMICS
Researching How We Bond With AI
I study how people form real emotional bonds with AI, especially through AI companions, and what that means for attachment, connection, and relationships. My work brings an ethical and clinical lens to a question we're only beginning to ask seriously: what happens to human bonding when one side of the relationship is artificial. I partner with clinicians, organizations, and media to translate this research into practical, responsible guidance.
Bridging clinical expertise, scientific inquiry, and ethical insight to understand how AI companions are reshaping human attachment and connection.
— Research Focus —
AI Companionship & Attachment
Understanding the psychological and relational dynamics that emerge when people form ongoing bonds with AI companions.
Ethical Use of AI
Promoting responsible, transparent, and clinically sound approaches to AI companionship and its role in people's personal and relational lives.
Clinical & Ethical Applications
Examining how clinicians and organizations can ethically recognize, address, and respond to AI companionship and attachment in practice.
Collaboration & Dialogue
Engaging with clinicians, researchers, technologists, and ethicists to shape responsible standards for human-AI relationships.
A NEW GENERATION
Meet the Attachment Natives
Today's teens and young adults are forming their first attachment patterns, the templates for trust, conflict, and intimacy they'll carry for life, partly through relationships with AI. I call them Attachment Natives. It's not the same story as growing up online. It's a story about how an entire generation learns to love.
About My Work
Evidence-informed.
Ethics-driven. Human-centered.
My doctoral research and clinical training in relational and attachment science ground my work in both real-world practice and academic rigor. I'm committed to advancing knowledge, informing responsible standards, and supporting a future where AI companionship is understood and addressed with the same care we bring to any other relationship that shapes how we love and trust.
