Fear of AI Across Cultures

How are people from different countries afraid of AI taking high-stakes human roles?

AI is rapidly advancing in its ability to work in occupations that were previously only for humans. The growing deployment of AI in the workplace will have huge implications, not just for how work gets done but what humans experience as they increasingly interact with AI workers. What does the public at large think of this prospect? Do they see AI taking on human jobs as a promising scenario or a troubling one?

In this preregistered study, 10,000 people in 20 countries were asked how they would feel about AI working in six different occupations: doctor, judge, manager, care worker, religious worker, and journalist. The participants' answers vary widely, depending on the job in question and the country the individual is from. Figure 2 shows how the fear levels about AI taking on particular human jobs differ from country to country.

Figure 1. The average levels of fear expressed in 20 countries (n = 500 respondents per country) about the deployment of AI in each of our six target occupations. Image: American Psychologist Dong et al. (2026)

Figure 1. The average levels of fear expressed in 20 countries (n = 500 respondents per country) about the deployment of AI in each of our six target occupations.
Image: American Psychologist
Dong et al. (2026)

But some patterns are common across many countries. As shown in Figure 3, when an AI is assigned to a new job, people evaluate the human traits needed for effectively performing that job against the AI's capability to mimic those traits. Any perceived mismatch between the two is the psychological basis of that person's fear. The findings can help AI designers and policymakers anticipate how new AI developments will be received in different nations, and address fears in a culturally sensitive manner by designing systems that meet culture-specific requirements.

Figure 2. Fears of AI in the 20 countries, as a function of the proportion of AI's matched psychological requirements across the six occupations. Image: American Psychologist Dong et al. (2026)

Figure 2. Fears of AI in the 20 countries, as a function of the proportion of AI's matched psychological requirements across the six occupations.
Image: American Psychologist
Dong et al. (2026)

Key Reference

Dong, M., Conway, J. R., Bonnefon, J.-F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2026). Fears about artificial intelligence across 20 countries and six domains of application. American Psychologist, 81(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001454