Understanding Student's Use of Generative AI in Academic Tasks: The Role of Perceived Risk, Rationalization, Guilt, and Social Norms

The growing application of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies in education environment has significantly influenced how most students perform academic tasks, such as research, writing, and other academic activities such as problem solving. Even with ongoing concerns regarding ethical issues and some potential cognitive risk regarding excessive dependence on AI, students continue to actively engage with AI tools in academia. The goal of the study is to explore and examine the social and psychological factors, specifically this study focusing on some area including risk, guilt feeling, rationalization and perceived social norms. Moreover this study conducted using a quantitative research method and all of the collected data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Modelling (PLS- SEM). The results show that perceived social norms and rationalization positively contribute to AI usage in academic task, while the guilt feeling negatively influences AI usage. Surprisingly, the perceived risk also has a positive relationship towards AI use, showing that some students continue using AI even though they are aware of the potential risk or consequences. Overall, the findings show the complex relationships between psychological and social on AI usage in academic settings.