AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors
People often have anxiety toward artificial intelligence (AI) due to lack of transparency about its operation. This study explicates this anxiety by conceptualizing it as a trait, and examines its effect. It hypothesizes that users with higher AI (trait) anxiety would have higher state anxiety when...
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Elsevier
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294988212500012X |
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| author | Hyun Yang S. Shyam Sundar |
| author_facet | Hyun Yang S. Shyam Sundar |
| author_sort | Hyun Yang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | People often have anxiety toward artificial intelligence (AI) due to lack of transparency about its operation. This study explicates this anxiety by conceptualizing it as a trait, and examines its effect. It hypothesizes that users with higher AI (trait) anxiety would have higher state anxiety when interacting with an AI doctor, compared to those with lower AI (trait) anxiety, in part because it is a deviation from the status quo of being treated by a human doctor. As a solution, it hypothesizes that an AI doctor's explanations for its diagnosis would relieve patients' state anxiety. Furthermore, based on the status quo bias theory and an adaptation of the theory of interactive media effects (TIME) for the study of human-AI interaction (HAII), this study hypothesizes that the affect heuristic triggered by state anxiety would mediate the causal relationship between the source cue of a doctor and user experience (UX) as well as behavioral intentions. A pre-registered 2 (human vs. AI) x 2 (explainable vs. non-explainable) experiment (N = 346) was conducted to test the hypotheses. Data revealed that AI (trait) anxiety is significantly associated with state anxiety. Additionally, data showed that an AI doctor's explanations for its diagnosis significantly reduce state anxiety in patients with high AI (trait) anxiety but increase state anxiety in those with low AI (trait) anxiety, but these effects of explanations are not significant among patients who interact with a human doctor. Theoretical and design implications of these findings and limitations of this study are discussed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5358278ea22443e786e1b61e6a462a8f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2949-8821 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans |
| spelling | doaj-art-5358278ea22443e786e1b61e6a462a8f2025-02-11T04:35:45ZengElsevierComputers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans2949-88212025-03-013100128AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctorsHyun Yang0S. Shyam Sundar1The Pennsylvania State University, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, 201 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA, 16802, United States; Corresponding author.The Pennsylvania State University, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, 201 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA, 16802, United States; Sungkyunkwan University, Department of Immersive Media Engineering, 25-2, Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03063, Republic of KoreaPeople often have anxiety toward artificial intelligence (AI) due to lack of transparency about its operation. This study explicates this anxiety by conceptualizing it as a trait, and examines its effect. It hypothesizes that users with higher AI (trait) anxiety would have higher state anxiety when interacting with an AI doctor, compared to those with lower AI (trait) anxiety, in part because it is a deviation from the status quo of being treated by a human doctor. As a solution, it hypothesizes that an AI doctor's explanations for its diagnosis would relieve patients' state anxiety. Furthermore, based on the status quo bias theory and an adaptation of the theory of interactive media effects (TIME) for the study of human-AI interaction (HAII), this study hypothesizes that the affect heuristic triggered by state anxiety would mediate the causal relationship between the source cue of a doctor and user experience (UX) as well as behavioral intentions. A pre-registered 2 (human vs. AI) x 2 (explainable vs. non-explainable) experiment (N = 346) was conducted to test the hypotheses. Data revealed that AI (trait) anxiety is significantly associated with state anxiety. Additionally, data showed that an AI doctor's explanations for its diagnosis significantly reduce state anxiety in patients with high AI (trait) anxiety but increase state anxiety in those with low AI (trait) anxiety, but these effects of explanations are not significant among patients who interact with a human doctor. Theoretical and design implications of these findings and limitations of this study are discussed.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294988212500012XAI anxietyState anxietyExplainable AIHealthcare AIMedical AIHAII-TIME |
| spellingShingle | Hyun Yang S. Shyam Sundar AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans AI anxiety State anxiety Explainable AI Healthcare AI Medical AI HAII-TIME |
| title | AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors |
| title_full | AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors |
| title_fullStr | AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors |
| title_full_unstemmed | AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors |
| title_short | AI anxiety: Explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with AI doctors |
| title_sort | ai anxiety explication and exploration of effect on state anxiety when interacting with ai doctors |
| topic | AI anxiety State anxiety Explainable AI Healthcare AI Medical AI HAII-TIME |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294988212500012X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hyunyang aianxietyexplicationandexplorationofeffectonstateanxietywheninteractingwithaidoctors AT sshyamsundar aianxietyexplicationandexplorationofeffectonstateanxietywheninteractingwithaidoctors |