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Samuel A. Muzhingi
Alyssa Appelman
William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas
Lawrence KS, USA
(Correspondence: appelman@ku.edu)
Citation: Muzhingi, S.A., & Appelman A. (2025). Ethics Role in AI Adoption: Extending the Technology Acceptance Model. JoCTEC, 7(3), pp. 51-69. DOI: doi.org/10.51548/joctec.7.3.2025.03
Abstract: Through two online surveys (N1 = 136, N2 = 65), this study explores the role of ethical concerns in technology adoption in the context of journalism students’ attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI). In line with the Technology Acceptance Model, perceived usefulness of AI and perceived ease of use of AI were each positively correlated with attitudes toward adopting AI and behavioral intentions to use AI tools. Ethical concerns about AI adoption were negatively correlated with perceived usefulness, attitudes and behavioral intentions. Notably, ethical concerns moderated the effects of perceived usefulness on behavioral intentions, such that higher ethical concerns lead to lower behavioral intention when perceived usefulness was low; when perceived usefulness was high, ethical concerns did not affect this relationship. A similar but not significant pattern was suggested regarding a potential moderating effect of perceived usefulness on attitudes. This study found no evidence that ethical concerns moderated the effects of perceived ease of use on either attitudes or behavioral intentions. The study suggests modifications to TAM—the proposed Ethics-Integrated Technology Acceptance Model (EITAM)—and future directions for research are discussed.
Keywords: Technology Acceptance Model, Ethics, AI, Survey, Politics