The Artificial Intelligence Experience and Attitude Survey (AIEAS): A Brief Measure for Socio-Economic Panel Studies

Abstract

Large-scale socio-economic panel studies aim to document societal trends and public opinions using representative population samples. Despite the profound impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on public and private life across diverse contexts, these studies have rarely addressed the use and evaluation of AI for individual respondents. Therefore, a standardized assessment instrument is introduced that was designed for the needs of large-scale social surveys. The Artificial Intelligence Experience and Attitude Survey (AIEAS) is a novel self-report instrument measuring awareness, experience, attitude, and usage intention regarding AI in the work, healthcare, and education domains. The scenario-based items describe different AI applications in different contexts and are administered in a planned missingness design to meet the brevity requirements of large-scale studies. A qualitative interview study (N = 30) confirmed the comprehensibility of the items, while a quantitative web-based study (N = 1084) with a German sample demonstrated a satisfactory measurement structure and precision. These findings attest to good psychometric properties of the AIEAS that allow for a multidimensional measurement of AI experiences and evaluations. Integrating the instrument in socio-economic panel studies will support examining societal trends over time to inform the scientific community and policies in different domains.