When AI Joins the Diagnosis: How Doctor–AI Collaboration Shapes Perceived Doctor Responsibility Under Perceived Diagnostic Errors

Artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, is becoming deeply embedded in healthcare, making doctor–AI collaborative diagnosis a common mode of medical decision-making. This development raises a critical question about responsibility attribution: When people perceive that a diagnostic error has occurred, how does AI involvement shape patients’ and observers’ judgments of the doctor’s responsibility? Drawing on responsibility attribution theory, we examine this question across five studies—one event-related potential (ERP) experiment and four scenario experiments. We find that when a diagnostic error is perceived, doctor–AI collaborative diagnosis (vs. doctor-only diagnosis) reduces perceived doctor responsibility by increasing perceived shared agency. This responsibility-reducing effect is weaker when the doctor rejects correct AI advice than when the doctor accepts incorrect AI advice. Theoretically, our findings show that responsibility attribution in human–AI collaboration involves two stages: agent identification and responsibility allocation. This account extends responsibility attribution theory to human–AI collaboration and identifies perceived shared agency as a key psychological mechanism underlying responsibility judgments in these settings. Practically, the findings can inform technology deployment, responsibility communication, and governance mechanisms in hospitals, AI firms, and regulatory agencies.