Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used not only for instrumental tasks, but as always-available and non-judgmental confidants for emotional support. Yet what drives adoption and how users perceive emotional support interactions across countries remains unknown. To address this gap, we present the first large-scale cross-cultural study of LLM use for emotional support, surveying 4,641 participants across seven countries (USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands). Our results show that adoption rates vary dramatically across countries (from 20% to 59%). Using mixed models that separate cultural effects from demographic composition, we find that: Being aged 25-44, religious, married, and of higher socioeconomic status are predictors of positive perceptions (trust, usage, perceived benefits), with socioeconomic status being the strongest. English-speaking countries consistently show more positive perceptions than Continental European countries. We further collect a corpus of 731 real multilingual prompts from user interactions, showing that users mainly seek help for loneliness, stress, relationship conflicts, and mental health struggles. Our findings reveal that LLM emotional support use is shaped by a complex sociotechnical landscape and call for a broader research agenda examining how these systems can be developed, deployed, and governed to ensure safe and informed access.

翻译：大语言模型（LLMs）正日益被用于不仅限于工具性任务，而是作为随时可得、不加评判的情感支持密友。然而，驱动用户采纳的因素以及不同国家用户对情感支持互动的感知方式仍不明确。为填补这一空白，我们开展了首个大语言模型情感支持使用行为的跨文化大规模研究，调查了七个国家（美国、英国、德国、法国、西班牙、意大利和荷兰）的4,641名参与者。结果显示，不同国家的采纳率差异显著（从20%到59%）。通过采用分离文化效应与人口统计构成的混合模型，我们发现：25-44岁年龄段、有宗教信仰、已婚以及社会经济地位较高的人群，对情感支持持更积极的态度（信任、使用频率、感知收益），其中社会经济地位的影响最为显著。英语国家用户整体比欧洲大陆国家用户表现出更积极的态度。我们进一步收集了用户交互过程中731个真实多语言提示样本，结果显示用户主要寻求对孤独感、压力、关系冲突及心理健康问题的帮助。研究表明，大语言模型情感支持的使用受复杂的社会技术图景影响，并呼吁建立更广泛的研究议程，以探索如何开发、部署和治理这些系统，确保安全且知情的使用。