Exploring the paradoxical use of ChatGPT in education: Analyzing benefits, risks, and coping strategies through integrated UTAUT and PMT theories using a hybrid approach of SEM and fsQCA

ChatGPT’s impact on education is both significant and inevitable, presenting a paradox of threats and benefits. While studies have explored ChatGPT’s usage, intention, and motivation, few have addressed its paradoxical use from a benefit-risk-coping perspective, leaving gaps in practical and theoretical solutions. This study integrates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to elucidate ChatGPT’s paradoxical use in education. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and fuzzy sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), it aims to provide insights and solutions for managing the benefits, risks, and coping mechanisms associated with ChatGPT in education. Hypotheses and propositions were tested on Taiwanese higher education users (N=351). Findings from SEM confirm that the perceived threat of ChatGPT’s severity decreases the intention to use it, while coping strategies such as self-efficacy and response efficacy strongly predict the intention to use ChatGPT. Additionally, the benefits of performance expectancy and task efficiency significantly increase the intention to use ChatGPT, which in turn significantly increases actual usage behavior. Findings from fsQCA reveal three configurations for both the usage and disusage of ChatGPT in education. The study identifies three constructs with necessary conditions. This research makes a significant theoretical contribution by integrating UTAUT and PMT into a unified framework to elucidate the paradoxical aspects of benefit-risk-coping in the use of ChatGPT. Practical implications for higher educational institutions and their scholars (e.g., students, lecturers, researchers) are also provided through confirmed solutions from the QCA model. These solutions offer strategic insights to leverage the benefits, identify the risks, and cope with the threats associated with using ChatGPT in education. • Integrates UTAUT and PMT to explore ChatGPT’s educational benefits and risks. • Perceived threats reduce ChatGPT use, but self-efficacy and response efficacy enhance it. • Performance expectancy and task efficiency significantly drive ChatGPT adoption. • fsQCA identifies critical factors for both effective and ineffective ChatGPT use in education. • Provides strategic insights for educators to balance ChatGPT’s benefits and threats.