ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1618850
This article is part of the Research TopicRedefining Learning in the Digital Age: Pedagogical Strategies and OutcomesView all 13 articles
From Threat Perception to Use Hesitancy: Examining College Students' Psychological Barriers to Generative AI Adoption
Provisionally accepted
- Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macao, SAR China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The usefulness and ease of use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technology serve as the necessary technical foundation for its rapid proliferation. However, within the current educational landscape, students have raised growing concerns and apprehensions regarding the ethical governance of GAI technologies and their potential to disrupt employment opportunities through job displacement effects. This study investigated the relationship between perceptions of threats and hesitancy concerning the use of GAI technology among college students. A survey of 805 participants revealed a positive correlation between perceived technological threat and use hesitancy.Importantly, perceived avoidability and fear of GAI were found to serve as sequential mediators in this relationship. These findings elucidate the psychological mechanisms that underlie students' reluctance to adopt emerging GAI technologies and suggest that interventions aimed at addressing threat perceptions, increasing avoidability, and reducing fear may promote greater acceptance of such techniques among students.
Keywords: Generative AI, technology threats, use hesitancy, AI literacy, higher education
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 21 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yin. 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: Yukun Yin, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macao, SAR China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.