“Students don’t want to be seen by their peers as incompetent,” said Alex Kale, a computer scientist at the University of Chicago and author of the book. learnpresented at a conference in Barcelona, Spain, in April. “They don’t want to be seen by their peers as dishonest … And it feels personal.”
Kale calls this phenomenon “social desirability bias,” the human tendency to answer questions in a way that makes us look good to others (and to us), rather than being completely honest, even in an anonymous survey. In a separate online survey of 98 undergraduate students conducted by the researchers, respondents said that agreeing to use AI is like admitting that you “can’t complete your studies independently,” or that you’re “lazy.” Another respondent thought that students were hiding their use because they were afraid of being caught and possibly being expelled.
Researchers offer another explanation for the gap. Students may overestimate how many of their peers use AI because it is such a visible part of campus life. Heard people talking about ChatGPT. They see AI tools enabled on mobile screens. That can start to feel normal. One survey respondent pointed out: “I think only a small percentage of students actually rely on LLMs for coursework, while many students do not. (The current post-2022 generation of AI tools like ChatGPT are often referred to as large-scale language models or LLMs.)
In other words, students may be using AI more than they admit, while AI hype may create the impression that everyone is using it.
This same phenomenon – a large gap between what students admit they are doing and what they believe their peers are doing – is often found in public health research on alcohol, drugs again sex. Students tend to overestimate how much their peers drink, use drugs or engage in unwanted sex. And that has had a huge impact on curbing unhealthy behaviors. When students believe that “everyone is doing it,” they are more likely to engage in it again. The misconception becomes partial self-fulfillment.
More than 25 years ago, colleges became concerned that warning students about drinking on campus was backfiring and actually encouraging students to get drunk. Many modified strategyit downplays the problem of binge drinking and informs the statistics that many students drink in moderation. The number of students who say they drink too much has dropped significantly, according to public health officials.
There may be lessons here on how to promote the proper use of AI, although the University of Chicago study did not link the use of AI to drugs or alcohol. But it does raise the point that opinions matter. If students believe that almost everyone is relying on AI to complete coursework, they may feel pressured to use it themselves to keep up.
Kristin Fasiang is a computer and learning science graduate student at Northwestern University. Fasiang reported and wrote this story along with Jill Barshay of The Hechinger Report.
This story is about Use of AI in college campuses was produced by The Hechinger reporta non-profit, independent media organization covering education. Sign up Evidence Points and so on Hechinger newsletters.
