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Grant support

Authors received financial support through a grant on bioethics by the Victor Grifols i Lucas Foundation (Spain). The second author also received financial support through the Culture of Grief Project, funded by the Obel Family Foundation.

Analysis of institutional authors

Brescó De Luna ICorresponding Author

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March 25, 2022
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Griefbots. A New Way of Communicating With The Dead?

Publicated to:Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. 57 (2): 466-481 - 2023-06-01 57(2), DOI: 10.1007/s12124-022-09679-3

Authors: Jiménez-Alonso B, Brescó de Luna I

Affiliations

Univ Autonoma Madrid, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Oberta Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. - Author
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. - Author

Abstract

There is a growing number of new digital technologies mediating the experiences of grief and the continuing bonds between the bereaved and their loved ones following death. One of the most recent technological developments is the "griefbot". Based on the digital footprint of the deceased, griefbots allow two-way communication between mourners and the digital version of the dead through a conversational interface or chat. This paper explores the mediational role that griefbots might have in the grieving process vis-à-vis that of other digital technologies, such as social media services or digital memorials on the Internet. After briefly reviewing the new possibilities offered by the Internet in the way people relate with the dead, we delve into the particularities of griefbots, focusing on the two-way communication afforded by this technology and the sense of simulation derived from the virtual interaction between the living and the dead. Discussion leads us to emphasize that, while both the Internet and griefbots bring about a significant spatial and temporal expansion to the grief experience -affording a more direct way to communicate with the dead anywhere and at any time- they differ in that, unlike the socially shared virtual space between mourners and loved ones in most digital memorials, griefbots imply a private conversational space between the mourner and the deceased person. The paper concludes by pointing to some ethical issues that griefbots, as a profit-oriented afterlife industry, might raise for both mourners and the dead in our increasingly digital societies.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

bereavementchatbotscontinuing bondscultural psychologydeathdigital footprintdigital immortalityfacebookgriefmediamediationmourningritualsChatbotsContinuing bondsCultural psychologyDeathDigital footprintDigital immortalityGriefGriefbotsMediationMourning

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Cultural Studies.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 11.04, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-08, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 1
  • Scopus: 5

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-08:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 60.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 77 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 157.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 19 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (BRESCO DE LUNA, IGNACIO).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been BRESCO DE LUNA, IGNACIO.