Psychological Benefits and Costs of Diversifying Algorithmic Recourse

Tominaga, Tomu; Yamashita, Naomi; Kurashima, Takeshi

doi:10.24963/ijcai.2026/854

Psychological Benefits and Costs of Diversifying Algorithmic Recourse

Tomu Tominaga, Naomi Yamashita, Takeshi Kurashima

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Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Human-Centred AI. Pages 7685-7693.

https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/854

Keywords

Human-Centred AI: AI Ethics, Trust, Fairnes
Human-Centred AI: Humans and AI

Abstract

Algorithmic recourse provides counterfactual action plans that help people overturn unfavorable AI decisions. While diverse recourse sets may improve transparency and motivation, they may also impose cognitive load and negative emotions by increasing counterfactual reasoning demands. To examine this trade-off, we conducted a between-subjects controlled experiment (N=750) that manipulated recourse-set diversity while controlling the number of options, and evaluated its effects on psychological benefits and costs. Results show that diversification enhances psychological benefits (e.g., willingness to act) for small sets without incurring additional psychological costs, whereas for large sets, it makes cognitive load more salient. These findings suggest that naively diversifying recourse can burden decision subjects, underscoring the need for new diversification methods that incorporate human cognition and psychology to mitigate such costs.

Tomu Tominaga, Naomi Yamashita, and Takeshi Kurashima. 2026. Psychological Benefits and Costs of Diversifying Algorithmic Recourse. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26. IJCAI, 7685–7693. https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/854

@inproceedings{ijcai2026p854,
  title     = {Psychological Benefits and Costs of Diversifying Algorithmic Recourse},
  author    = {Tominaga, Tomu and Yamashita, Naomi and Kurashima, Takeshi},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on
               Artificial Intelligence, {IJCAI-26}},
  publisher = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization},
  editor    = {Diego Calvanese},
  pages     = {7685--7693},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = {8},
  note      = {Human-Centred AI},
  doi       = {10.24963/ijcai.2026/854},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/854},
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Psychological Benefits and Costs of Diversifying Algorithmic Recourse
AU  - Tominaga, Tomu
AU  - Yamashita, Naomi
AU  - Kurashima, Takeshi
T2  - Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26
PB  - International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization
PY  - 2026
SP  - 7685
EP  - 7693
DO  - 10.24963/ijcai.2026/854
UR  - https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/854
ER  -