Motivated reasoning about artificial intelligence in public policy: comparative evidence from Germany

Abstract This study tests whether citizens’ evaluations of the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) in public policies are subject to motivated reasoning. Specifically, we test whether respondents’ preferences for AI regulation or their subjective attitudes toward AI are sources of motivated reasoning across varying use cases, differing in nature, complexity, safety-criticality and normative considerations: AI in municipal services, self-driving cars and recidivism prediction. Experimental results from two preregistered studies conducted among German citizens reveal that subjective attitudes toward AI cause substantial and robust motivated reasoning across all three policy domains. Regulatory preferences are only a selective source for motivated reasoning about AI in public policy. Overall, the results point to the cognitive limitations of strategies that attempt to objectify the benefits of AI without considering the context of the application domain. Politicians and policymakers need to consider these limitations in their attempts to increase citizens’ appreciation of AI in public policy.