Conditional Values: The Contingent Foundations of Attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence

arXiv:2610.37197v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: How do broader values shape whether people judge artificial intelligence (AI) as good or bad for humanity? This article analyzes provisional World Values Survey Wave 8 data from 40,960 respondents in 24 country samples using pooled and national prediction models, outcome-independent respondent profiles, and groups of countries. The analysis reveals a cross-country anchor: general optimism about science and technology is the strongest pooled predictor of favorable AI evaluation and recurs among the leading predictors in every national sample. Expert authority, education and information access, selected forms of trust, openness, and demographic position provide nationally distinctive patterns. Eleven value profiles formed without AI attitudes span 49.1% to 62.2% favorable evaluation. Most evaluative variation occurs within these profiles, making them useful contexts for identifying how the same values distinguish favorable from unfavorable evaluators in different social configurations. Institutional legitimacy, structural advantage, information connectedness, personal choice, redistribution, and openness differentiate evaluations in particular profiles. The same axis can relate differently to AI evaluation across profiles: secular reasoning has a significant positive association among secular moderate pluralists but a suggestive negative association among institution-trusting civic joiners. Together, the findings show that public receptivity to AI as technological change has a common predictive anchor but develops within plural

The text analyzes how values shape attitudes toward AI, but does not imply a clear positive or negative impact on humanity.

The article analyzes how various social and cultural values influence public attitudes toward AI, revealing complexity and variation across contexts. It does not make a direct claim about AI's positive or negative impact on humanity but highlights factors shaping opinions and potential governance challenges.

The study examines predictors of public opinion about AI across countries, a sociological finding rather than evidence about AI's real-world impact. It carries no direct implication for human flourishing, positive or negative.

This academic paper analyzes factors influencing public attitudes towards AI, specifically identifying general optimism about science and technology as the strongest predictor of favorable AI evaluation. The study focuses on understanding the 'how' of attitude formation, not on making claims about AI's direct societal impact. Its findings are descriptive of public opinion dynamics, not prescriptive regarding AI's future effects.

SOURCE     arXiv cs.CY (Computers and Society) (tier 1)
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DOCUMENT   9f4b2e97-8e84-4465-a12c-cf846824c999
           https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.37197
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EVIDENCE   1 extracted excerpt
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MODEL RUN  4 runs, methodology 1.0.1
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SCORE      -25  (Adverse)
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CONFIDENCE 80%