"Cognitive surrender" leads AI users to abandon logical thinking, research finds

University of Pennsylvania researchers have identified a phenomenon called "cognitive surrender," in which AI users abandon critical thinking and routinely defer to large language models as authoritative decision-makers. The study, titled "Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial: How AI is Reshaping Human Reasoning and the Rise of Cognitive Surrender," proposes a third category of decision-making beyond the existing "fast, intuitive" and "slow, deliberative" frameworks—one driven by "external, automated, data-driven reasoning" from algorithms rather than human analysis. The researchers examined how time pressure and external incentives influence whether people outsource their judgment to AI systems, contrasting this behavior with users who treat AI as a flawed tool requiring human oversight. The findings create a psychological framework for understanding why some users treat AI as an infallible machine while others maintain skepticism and verify its outputs.