I, Human: How Artificial Agents Make Us Try Harder (Or Not) In Creative Tasks

Abstract

Although creativity is almost universally considered a uniquely human faculty that will help humans keep their jobs and compete against artificial agents (robots, artificial intelligence), little research has examined how exposure to artificial agents impacts the human creative process. Drawing on social comparison and expectancy violation theories, we hypothesized that individuals would decrease their creative effort when they are exposed to artificial agents, but not humans, and consider artificial agents non-threatening. In multiple experimental studies and a survey (total n=1497) across collaborative, competitive, and neutral contexts, we found support for our hypothesis and showed that this effect is contingent on perceptions of artificial agents’ creative capacities. When artificial agents are, in defiance of the general belief, capable of delivering a creative output, individuals exert greater effort when creativity as a uniquely human characteristic is more salient to the self and the perceived threat from an artificial agent increases.