ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Comput. Sci.
Sec. Human-Media Interaction
Lay Belief about AI and Its Decision-Making
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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Abstract
This paper examines people's lay belief concerning the mind of an artificial intelligence (AI) as a decision-making agent and how this belief shapes an individuals' own decision-making style in response. People perceive AI as more rational and reason-driven, in contrast to viewing humans as emotionally driven. Two studies confirm these beliefs, showing participants consistently judge AI as reason-based and humans as emotion-driven in decision-making. In a subsequent study, participants engage in an economic ultimatum game. When participants thought they were interacting with an AI (vs. a human) competitor, they adopted a more economically rational decision-making style, moving closer to the game-theoretic optimum. This shift in decision-making style was mediated by participants' belief in the rational nature of an AI. The findings suggest that perceptions of AI's decision-making tendencies can influence the cognitive strategies that are adopted in response, with potential implications for human-AI interactions.
Summary
Keywords
AI, artificial intelligence, cognitive style, decision-making, emotion, Game theory, Reason
Received
15 December 2025
Accepted
24 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Vijayakumar, Yang and DeFranza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Suhas Vijayakumar
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