ABSTRACT

The advent of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has influenced the way people work in content creation professions (like software coding, artists, advertising etc.) because it can create content (text, visual, audio) like humans do. However, GAI has received a relatively tepid response in terms of adoption from the academic research community. To explore the barriers to GAI adoption, we used a multi-method approach. First, we conducted interviews with academic researcher scholars in the social sciences domain (n=23). Using thematic analysis, we identified egotism bias (a tendency to interpret events in ways to maintain a positive self-image) as a key factor in GAI adoption. Next, we quantitatively investigated this hindrance effect by applying egotism bias as a moderating factor in the Technology Adoption Model (TAM). The proposed model was tested using a two wave cross-lagged survey on academic researchers (n=250). The results confirmed that egotism bias negatively moderates the relationship between perceived usefulness and attitude towards GAI, which, in turn, weakens behavioral intention to use GAI. These findings offer critical insights for understanding and promoting GAI adoption in academic research.

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