Theory Audit — Field Note 06: Attachment by Design

Phase 2 — Theory Audit

Audit question

Is Attachment by Design simply familiar relational attachment to a mediated object, or do AI-specific affordances produce a distinct form of attachment and reliance that existing theory does not fully explain?

55 papers across 6 folders

Folder A: Attachment, ownership, and the extended self (8 papers). Folder B: Parasociality, social presence, and CASA (7 papers). Folder C: Anthropomorphism and relational affordances (9 papers). Folder D: Need satisfaction, compensation, habit, and problematic reliance (7 papers). Folder E: Trust, responsiveness, disclosure, and apparent reciprocity (8 papers). Folder F: Direct AI-companion and psychosocial-AI evidence (16 papers).

Verdict: D — Integrative framework useful

Familiar attachment to an unfamiliar kind of attachment figure, under unfamiliar conditions of adaptation and ownership. AI changes the ecology of attachment more clearly than it changes attachment psychology. A residual remains in the coordinated architecture and commercial governance of established attachment-relevant processes — not a new elementary mechanism.