Those who have a more favorable view of artificial intelligence tend to spend more time on social media, and may be more likely to show signs of problematic use, according to a new study published in the Addictive Behavior Report.
This new study was designed to explore questions previously overlooked in the field of behavioral research. While many factors have been identified as risk factors for problematic social media use, such as personality traits, emotional regulation difficulties, and previous mental health issues, we have not investigated whether people’s attitudes towards artificial intelligence also link to unhealthy social media habits.
Social media platforms are deeply entangled with AI systems that promote personalized recommendations, targeted ads and content curation, which has led to stakeholders suspect that there might be a connection.
“For several years, I was interested in understanding how AI shapes society and individuals. I recently came up with a framework called Impact to provide a theoretical framework for understanding this, at the Institute of Cooperative Innovation at Macau University.
Artificial intelligence plays a behind-the-scenes role on almost every major social media platform. Algorithms often learn from user behavior and preferences to maximize engagement by displaying content that is likely to attract attention or create emotions. These AI-powered systems are designed to increase the amount of time spent on the platform, allowing them to benefit advertisers and the companies themselves. However, they may also contribute to addictive behavior by making it difficult for users to release.
Deduced from established models in psychology, researchers proposed that attitudes towards AI can affect how people interact with social media platforms. In this case, people who trust AI and believe in its benefits tend to adopt AI-powered platforms like social media, and may overuse them.
To investigate these ideas, researchers analyzed survey data from over 1,000 adults living in Germany. Participants were recruited through an online panel and represented a wide range of ages and education levels. After excluding incomplete or inconsistent responses and removing extreme outliers (such as those who reported using social media for more than 16 hours per day), the final sample included 1,048 people, equalizing the number of men and women.
Participants completed various self-report questionnaires. Attitude towards artificial intelligence was measured using both multi-item scales and single-item ratings. These included questions such as “I trust artificial intelligence” and “Artificial intelligence benefits humanity,” which evaluated positive views and captured negative perceptions such as “I’m afraid of artificial intelligence” or “Artificial intelligence destroys humanity.”
To assess social media behavior, participants were asked how much time they spent each day using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, WhatsApp and others, for personal and work purposes. Those who reported their use of social media completed a metric called social networking sites, which included questions about confiscation into social media, difficulty in reducing, and using social media to escape issues.
Overall, 956 participants said they used social media. Within this group, researchers found that people with a more positive attitude towards AI also tend to spend more time on social media and report more problematic patterns of use. This relationship was true for both men and women, but was strong among men. In contrast, negative attitudes towards AI only show weak or inconsistent links with social media use, suggesting that it is an AI enthusiast that is more closely related to excessive use.
“It’s interesting to see that the effect is driven by a male sample,” Montag told Psypost. “In my second thought, this is not so surprising. In some samples, we found that men reported higher AI attitudes than women, so (on average). Therefore, we need to take into account the gender of research questions like the ones we have now.”
“In addition, we would have expected negative AI attitudes to play a greater role in our work. We observed that AI was also along with the use of more problematic social media, at least for men, but this effect was mild at best (such links may be explained by negative impacts and tendencies to escape), and this applies to problematic social media use).”
To better understand how these variables are related, researchers conducted mediation analyses. This type of analysis helps to clarify whether one factor (in this case, the time spent on social media) can help explain the relationship between the other two factors (positive AI attitudes and problematic use).
The results suggested that people with positive attitudes towards AI tend to spend more time on social media, and that this increase in use is associated with higher scores on addiction scales. In other words, the time spent on social media partially explained the relationship between AI attitudes and problematic behavior.
“I personally believe it is important to have a certain degree of positive attitude towards benevolent AI technology,” Montag said. “AI changes our personal and business life a lot. Therefore, we need to prepare ourselves better for the active use of this technology. This indicates that it is known to be relevant to predicting the use of AI technology. Participants.”
Importantly, researchers emphasized that data cannot establish causes and effects. Because this study is a cross-section, that is, based on a single snapshot in time, it cannot be said whether positive attitudes towards AI lead to excessive use of social media, or whether people who already use social media are more likely to retain a positive view of AI. A third factor, such as a general interest in technology, could also be underlying both trends.
The sample in this study is diverse in age and gender, but on average age is 45 years old, which may limit the generalizability of the findings, especially for younger users who are more active on social media and have different relationships with technology. Future research could benefit from focusing on young populations and tracking individuals to see how attitudes and behaviors change.
“In short, our work should be viewed as exploratory and inspiring discussion. Certainly, it does not provide any final insight,” Montag said.
Despite these limitations, the findings raise important questions about how people relate to artificial intelligence and how that relationship affects their actions. The authors suggest that positive attitudes towards AI are often seen as good. This inspires people to adopt useful tools and new innovations. However, this same openness to AI can make some individuals more vulnerable to overuse, especially when technology is built into products designed to maximize engagement.
Researchers also point out that people may not always be aware of the role AI plays in online life. Unlike using obvious AI systems such as chatbots and virtual assistants, when you browse your social media feed, you may not be willing to interact with AI. But behind the scenes, algorithms always shape what users see and how they are involved. This invisible impact can contribute to compulsive use without the user realizing how well the technology is leading them to their actions.
The authors view their findings as a starting point for further exploration. They suggest that researchers should consider whether positive attitudes towards AI are linked to other types of problematic online behavior, particularly on platforms that use AI intensively, such as excessive gaming, online shopping, and gambling. They also advocate research examining whether people’s perceptions of AI systems affect how they affect those systems.
“In a broader sense, we want to map the positive and negative aspects of AI technology use,” explained Montag. “I think it’s important to use AI to live a more productive and happy life in the future (I recently looked into AI-Well-Being in this context), but we need to be aware of the potential dark side of AI use.”
“We are happy if people are interested in what we do and want to support us by filling out our research. Here we will do research on key emotional traits and AI attitudes.
The study, “The Dark Aspects of Positive AI Attitudes: Investigating the Association with (Problemous) Social Media Use,” was written by Christian Montag and John D. Elhai.
