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  • November 2023
  • Article
  • Nature Human Behaviour

Psychological Factors Underlying Attitudes toward AI Tools

By: Julian De Freitas, Stuti Agarwal, B. Schmitt and N. Haslam
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:10
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Abstract

What are the psychological factors driving attitudes toward AI tools, and how can resistance to AI systems be overcome when they are beneficial? In this perspective, we first organize the main sources of resistance into five main categories: opacity, emotionlessness, rigidity, autonomy, and group membership. We relate each of these barriers to fundamental aspects of cognition, then cover empirical studies providing correlational or causal evidence for how the barrier influences attitudes toward AI tools. Second, we separate each of the five barriers into AI-related and user-related factors, which is of practical relevance in developing interventions toward adoption of beneficial AI tools. Third, we highlight potential risks arising from these well-intentioned interventions. Fourth, we explain how the current perspective applies to various stakeholders, including how to approach interventions that carry known risks, and point to outstanding questions for future work.

Keywords

Policy; Self; AI and Machine Learning; Attitudes; Technology Adoption

Citation

De Freitas, Julian, Stuti Agarwal, B. Schmitt, and N. Haslam. "Psychological Factors Underlying Attitudes toward AI Tools." Nature Human Behaviour 7, no. 11 (November 2023): 1845–1854.
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About The Author

Julian De Freitas

Marketing
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