Anxiety Induced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) Painting: An Investigation Based on the Fear Acquisition Theory

Objective: This article aims to systematically investigate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) painting tools on multidimensional social-psychological anxieties, specifically focusing on privacy violation, bias behavior, job replacement, and learning anxiety. Method: Based on the fear acquisition theory framework, this study investigates the dimensions of anxiety induced by AI painting. Through questionnaire surveys, first-order and second-order confirmatory factor analysis, and one-way analysis of variance, the study successfully measures the multidimensional impact of AI painting on psychological anxiety. Results: Study results indicate significant differences in anxiety levels across dimensions. Privacy violation and bias behavior are found to elicit the highest levels of anxiety, with average scores of 3.77 and 3.85, respectively, on a 1-5 scale. Conversely, job replacement and learning anxiety demonstrate relatively lower scores of 3.49 and 3.30. A more in-depth variance analysis highlights substantial gender differences in privacy violation anxiety, with females registering a significantly higher average score of 3.90 compared to men's 3.58. Furthermore, educational level is shown to significantly impact the anxiety levels of job replacement and learning anxiety; individuals with no more than a high school education scored markedly higher than those with undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Conclusions: This study reveals the significant impact of AI drawing tools on triggering multidimensional anxiety in individuals and underscores the important role of gender and education level in the different anxiety dimensions elicited by AI drawing tools.