Phantom AI Effect in Remote Creative Collaboration: Misattribution of Human Creativity to AI in South African Virtual Teams

Dickson Mdhlalose

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Abstract: This study examines the 'Phantom AI effect', a cognitive bias wherein members of remote creative teams mistakenly attribute human-generated ideas or feedback to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the absence of any AI use. As generative AI tools become prevalent in South African workplaces, this misattribution poses unexamined psychosocial risks. Using a sample of 412 South African creative professionals and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with AMOS, the study finds that Phantom AI attribution significantly reduces team trust (β = -0.52, p

Keywords: Phantom AI Effect; Automation Bias; Team Trust; Creative Self-Efficacy; Remote Creative Collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 D91 J24 M15 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:esprep:341853

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