Abstract
Understanding individual differences in attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) is of importance, among others in system development. Against this background, we sought to investigate associations between personality and attitudes towards AI. Relations were investigated in samples from two countries—Germany and China—to find potentially replicable, cross-culturally applicable associations. In German (N = 367, n = 137 men) and Chinese (N = 879; n = 220 men) online surveys, participants completed items on sociodemographic variables, the Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence (ATAI) scale, and the Big Five Inventory. Correlational analysis revealed among others significant positive associations between Neuroticism and fear of AI in both samples, with similar effect sizes. In addition to a significant association of acceptance of AI with gender, regression analyses revealed a small but significant positive association between Neuroticism and fear of AI in the German sample. In the Chinese sample, regression analyses showed positive associations of acceptance of AI with age, Openness, and Agreeableness. Fear of AI was only significantly negatively related to Agreeableness in the Chinese sample. The association of fear of AI with Neuroticism just failed to be significant in the regression model in the Chinese sample. These results reveal important insights into associations between certain personality traits and attitudes towards AI. However, given mostly small effect sizes of relations between personality and attitudes towards AI, other factors aside from personality traits seem to be of relevance to explain variance in individuals’ attitudes towards AI, as well.
Highlights
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an omnipresent part of daily life for many individuals across the globe
In the Chinese sample, age was significantly correlated with Openness (r = 0.15, p < 0.001), Conscientiousness (r = 0.24, p < 0.001), Agreeableness (r = 0.21, p < 0.001), Neuroticism (r = − 0.12, p < 0.001), and the Artificial Intelligence (ATAI) Acceptance scale (r = 0.17, p < 0.001)
The so called “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” aims at making China a leader in AI research. Such publicly communicated strategies among others hinting at large monetary investment into AI research with a consequent development plan might shape opinions by Chinese citizens towards having more optimistic views towards AI and explain the greater acceptance of AI in the Chinese sample of the present study compared to the German sample
Summary
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an omnipresent part of daily life for many individuals across the globe. Given the relevance of personality in an increasingly digitalized world [11], it is surprising that little is known about personality characteristics and their potential associations with attitudes towards AI This knowledge could help to improve system development and design to support positive attitudes towards beneficial AI products. Knowledge on individual characteristics predicting greater fear of AI can support identification of groups of individuals who might profit from special training before working in AI environments, because they are likely to fear AI without such training Such training, in turn, might lower risks of accidents in work environments, where collaborations with AI products are becoming increasingly important. In turn, might lower risks of accidents in work environments, where collaborations with AI products are becoming increasingly important Based on these considerations, the present study aimed at examining associations between attitudes towards AI and personality traits. These associations were investigated in a cross-cultural study including German and Chinese participants to carve out generalizable associations valid across different cultures
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