Tully et al. (2025)

Question 1

Study’s aim

Answer 1

Examines how AI literacy affects individuals’ receptivity to AI technologies. Argues that people with lower AI literacy are more receptive to AI because they perceive it as magical and awe-inspiring. Individuals with higher AI literacy, tend to be more critical and discerning, especially when AI is used in human-centric tasks. Integrates theories of automation bias and aversion, but introduces “magical perception”

Question 2

AI literacy

Answer 2

Individuals’ knowledge and understanding of artificial intelligence

Question 3

Automation bias

Answer 3

Favouring automated systems

Question 4

Algorithm aversion

Answer 4

Distrusting algorithms after errors

Question 5

“Magical perception”

Answer 5

Suggests that the more mysterious AI appears, the more open people are to adopting it, particularly in tasks where AI mimics human behaviour. Introduced as a key factor influencing AI receptivity

Question 6

Study 1

Answer 6

Analysed data from 27 countries to examine how AI literacy at the national level predicts country-wide AI receptivity. Results: Countries with lower AI literacy exhibited higher receptivity to AI adoption. This suggests that societal familiarity with AI impacts collective openness to its integration

Question 7

Study 2

Answer 7

Focused on students and explored their willigness to use generative AI for writing assignments. Students with lower AI literacy showed a greater propensity to use AI, highlighting how AI literacy influences academic behaviour

Question 8

Study 3

Answer 8

Assessed whether AI literacy predicts past AI usage. Individuals with lower AI literacy reported higher frequency of AI usage in the previous six months. This indicates that the relationship between AI literacy and receptivity isn’t simply due to general tech affinity

Question 9

Study 4

Answer 9

Using a nationally representative US sample, this study investigated whether the perception of AI as magical explains why people with lower AI literacy are more receptive to AI. Results: Confirmed that people with lower AI literacy were more receptive to AI because they perceived it as magical and awe-inspiring

Question 10

Study 5

Answer 10

Expanded on Study 4 by testing whether awe also mediates the relationship between AI literacy and AI receptivity. It showed lower AI literacy leads to magical perceptions, which in turn elicit awe, explaining greater AI receptivity. Alternative explanations did not account for these results

Question 11

Study 6

Answer 11

Examined whether the lower literacy-higher receptivity link holds across different task types. It found that the effect generalised to a broad range of tasks but was moderated by how objective and non-human the tasks were. Tasks perceived as less human-centric did not evoke the magical perception, reducing the literacy-receptivity link

Question 12

Study 7

Answer 12

Manipulated whether tasks required distinctly human attributes. For tasks needing human-like qualities, participants with lower AI literacy were more receptive. For objective tasks, this relationship reversed, and participants with higher AI literacy were more receptive. This demonstrates that the perception of AI’s role in human vs. non-human tasks shapes receptivity

Question 13

Objective tasks

Answer 13

E.g. data processing

Question 14

Algorithm appreciation

Answer 14

Positive attitudes towards AI