 If machines outperform humans: status threat evoked by and willingness to interact with sophisticated machines in a work-related context*Andrea Grundke Behaviour and Information Technology, 2024, vol. 43, issue 7, 1348-1364 Abstract: The use of sophisticated machines at the workplace – e.g. robots equipped with artificial intelligence – is on the rise. Since humans tend to experience a threat to human uniqueness in response to machines with human-like mental capabilities, I explored whether the same holds true for status threat, a well-researched variable in the interpersonal workplace literature. Across two experiments (N1 = 104, N2 = 589), humans felt higher status threat towards a robot (Experiment 1, laboratory study) and an artificial intelligence (Experiment 2, online study) that outperformed a human in verbal-creative tasks, requiring agency and experience to solve. Contrary to results from human-human literature, higher status threat was linked with higher willingness to interact with the machine, which I trace back to its high perceived usefulness. I further interpret my findings as a hint that humans are open to using modern-day technology if they assume to benefit from the advantages the technology brings to their own work and therefore accept the feeling of status threat at the same time. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:43:y:2024:i:7:p:1348-1364 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2023.2210688 Access Statistics for this article Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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