To use or not to use? Understanding doctoral students' acceptance of ChatGPT in writing through technology acceptance model

Min Zou; Liang Huang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1259531

To use or not to use? Understanding doctoral students' acceptance of ChatGPT in writing through technology acceptance model

Front Psychol. 2023 Oct 26:14:1259531. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1259531. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Min Zou¹, Liang Huang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
² Department of Public Administration, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

While artificial intelligence-based chatbots have demonstrated great potential for writing, little is known about whether and how doctoral students accept the use of ChatGPT in writing. Framed with Technology Acceptance Model, this study investigated doctoral students' acceptance toward ChatGPT in writing and the factors that influence it. The questionnaire survey revealed a high intention to use ChatGPT in writing among doctoral students in China. The findings further indicated that attitude was a significant predictor of behavioural intention to use ChatGPT in writing and mediated the impacts of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on it. Perceived ease of ChatGPT use was in turn influenced by students' past ChatGPT use experience. This study provides powerful evidence for the applicability of Technology Acceptance Model in the acceptance of ChatGPT in writing. The results have significant implications for leveraging ChatGPT for writing in higher education.

Keywords: ChatGPT; artificial intelligence-based chatbot; doctoral students; technology acceptance model; writing.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Beijing Association of Higher Education under Grant MS2022225 and 2023 Beijing Institute of Technology Science and Technology Innovation Program “BIT Think Tank” Advancement Plan Funding Project under Grant 2023CX13030.