The impact of college students' social anxiety on human-machine trust: The mediating role of perceived intelligence and the moderating role of psychological anthropomorphism
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This study aims to investigate the influence of college students' levels of social anxiety on the establishment of human-machine trust during interactions. Additionally, the mediating role of perceived intelligence and the moderating role of psychological anthropomorphism will be investigated. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 596 Chinese college students using the Interaction Anxiety Scale (IAS), the Intelligence Scale for AI (ISAI), the Human-Machine Trust Scale (HMT), and the AI Psychological Anthropomorphism Scale. The analysis was conducted using a moderated mediation model based on the Bootstrap method. The results show: 1. Social anxiety exhibits a significant positive correlation with human-machine trust; both social anxiety and psychological anthropomorphism significantly and positively predict perceived intelligence. 2. The perceived intelligence significantly mediated the relationship between social anxiety and human-machine trust. 3. The psychological anthropomorphism moderated the effect of social anxiety on perceived intelligence, such that higher psychological anthropomorphism tendencies weakened the positive predictive role of social anxiety on perceived intelligence. This study not only validates the applicability of CASA theory among individuals with social anxiety in China, but also reveals how those experiencing social anxiety within the Chinese cultural context develop their cognition of and trust in AI technology. It provides both theoretical foundations and practical insights for developing human-computer interaction systems tailored to local sociopsychological characteristics.
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