ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
The influence of college students' AI literacy on perceived usefulness: a moderated mediation model with AI anxiety and trust across disciplinary backgrounds.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: To investigate how AI literacy influences perceived usefulness among university students from different disciplinary backgrounds, this study examines the roles of AI anxiety and trust. Methods: Based on 563 valid samples collected from university students, a moderated mediation model was utilized to explore AI anxiety as a mediator and trust as a moderator across various disciplinary backgrounds. Results: Results indicate that: (1) AI literacy significantly and positively predicted perceived usefulness, whereas AI anxiety negatively predicted perceived usefulness; (2) AI anxiety mediated the relationship between AI literacy and perceived usefulness; (3) Trust significantly moderated the relationship between AI literacy and AI anxiety, with high levels of trust buffering anxiety arising from low AI literacy; (4) Students from different disciplinary backgrounds exhibited differences in AI literacy, AI anxiety, trust, and perceived usefulness, yet trust's moderating effect remained consistent across disciplines. Discussion: This study extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) within an AI context, revealing the synergistic mechanisms of cognitive, affective, and socio-psychological factors in university students' AI adoption processes. The findings provide actionable guidance for AI education in higher education by emphasizing the need for discipline-specific curricula alongside targeted interventions that enhance trust and reduce AI anxiety, thereby improving students' perceived usefulness and engagement with AI technologies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.