God or the Machine? Personal Religiosity and Negative Attitudes to AI

Public attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) are beginning to take shape as these technologies become more common. We explored whether and how attitudes toward AI might be associated with religiosity, as well as potential psychological mechanisms underlying this association. Two survey studies explored this relationship. In Study 1, we examined the association between religiosity and AI-related anxiety in a nationally representative Chilean sample (N = 1,021). Study 2 focused on a sample of U.S. religious respondents (N = 411), investigating perceptions of AI as a threat while incorporating refined measures of religiosity and three potential mediators: moral progressivism, belief in creation in the image of God, and aversion to playing God. Through both studies, we found evidence linking higher religiosity to negative attitudes toward AI. These findings suggest that this relationship may be shaped by psychological factors such as social identity and moral attitudes toward interfering with nature.