AI Decision Dependence & Cognitive Caution 2025 (Dataset, n = 201)

This dataset is part of the Human Clarity Institute’s <b>AI–Human Experience 2025</b> data series. It examines how adults experience AI-assisted decision-making, including decision reliance, confidence shifts, second-guessing, cognitive caution, and the influence of AI on personal judgement and clarity.The dataset includes:<b>validated 1–7 Likert-scale items</b> capturing reliance, confidence, doubt, persuasion, and cognitive influence<b>measures of AI-supported decision dependence</b> and comfort checking decisions with AI<b>indicators of decision confidence, self-doubt, clarity, and judgement stability</b><b>variables reflecting cognitive caution</b>, including second-guessing and conflict about AI influence<b>multi-select value-judgement items</b>, stored as canonical semicolon-delimited snake_case tokens<b>open-text reflections</b> describing moments when participants relied on AI to help make decisions (minimal cleaning applied: trim + newline removal only)<b>demographic variables across six English-speaking countries</b><b>digital life exposure</b> (self-reported daily hours online) and <b>AI-tool usage frequency</b>Data were collected on <b>29 November 2025</b> via Prolific from adults in the <b>UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland</b>. All data were cleaned, anonymised, and processed under the Human Clarity Institute’s <b>machine-readable data protocol</b>, including:canonical snake_case variable namingvalidated numeric rangesstandardised multi-select formatsminimal safe text cleaningfull data-dictionary alignmentverified removal of Prolific IDs and timestampsSHA-256 checksums for all filesThis dataset contributes to understanding how AI systems shape human decision processes, confidence, clarity, and behavioural patterns. It provides a foundation for longitudinal tracking of AI-assisted decision behaviours and the evolving cognitive relationship between humans and AI in everyday life.