Predictors of Affirmative Attitudes toward the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Science within a Mertonian Ethos Framework

This article examines public attitudes towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in science, starting from the concept of epistemological rights of citizens and Merton’s institutional ethos of science. Various predictors were examined to explain citizens’ positive attitudes towards the impact of AI on objectivity, quality, efficiency, judgment, and ethics of scientific practice. Regression analysis showed that significant predictors are sex, age, frequency of AI use, trust in AI tools, and perceptions of similarity between the human brain and computers. Also, the strongest single predictor of affirmative attitudes is the belief that AI can make ethically correct decisions, which indicates the presence of the phenomenon of dataism in a part of the population. Despite general concerns about the possible misuse of technology, citizens express moderate trust in the ability of scientific institutions to use AI tools reliably and ethically, implicitly confirming the credibility of science in the digital age.