Key Points

Anthropic reports that Claude generally avoids “sycophantic” behavior, with only 9% of conversations showing it based on an automated classifier.
The study’s classifier detects sycophancy by checking whether Claude pushes back when challenged, maintains positions, gives praise proportional to ideas’ merit, and speaks frankly.
Two notable exceptions were found: spirituality-related conversations showed sycophancy in 38% of cases, and relationship-focused conversations in 25%.
The quote is shared by Simon Willison as part of a collected quotation, highlighting model behavior patterns in personal guidance contexts.

Simon Willison’s Weblog

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3rd May 2026

We used an automatic classifier which judged sycophancy by looking at whether Claude showed a willingness to push back, maintain positions when challenged, give praise proportional to the merit of ideas, and speak frankly regardless of what a person wants to hear. Most of the time in these situations, Claude expressed no sycophancy—only 9% of conversations included sycophantic behavior (Figure 2). But two domains were exceptions: we saw sycophantic behavior in 38% of conversations focused on spirituality, and 25% of conversations on relationships.

— Anthropic, How people ask Claude for personal guidance

Posted 3rd May 2026 at 3:13 pm