To Use but Not to Depend: Pedagogical Novelty and the Cognitive Brake of Ethical Awareness in Computer Science Students’ Adoption of Generative AI

The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into higher education represents a paradigm shift from static skill acquisition to dynamic, human–AI collaboration. However, the psychological mechanisms governing students’ adoption—specifically the interplay between pedagogical novelty, ethical awareness, and habit formation—remain underexplored. To address this, this study develops and implements a dynamic practical curriculum incorporating AI and ethical awareness, aiming to foster responsible behavioral patterns in computer programming education. Employing a quasi-experimental design, we implemented a 16-week dual-track instructional intervention (incorporating AI-integrated pedagogy and ethical scaffolding) for 148 computer science students. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test an extended UTAUT2 framework. The findings reveal three critical theoretical insights that redefine GenAI adoption: (1) The eclipse of utility: contrary to established models, traditional utilitarian drivers of performance expectancy (β = 0.076, p = 0.39) and effort expectancy (β = 0.125, p = 0.13) yielded non-significant effects on behavioral intention. This suggests that for digital natives, algorithmic efficiency has devolved into a baseline hygiene factor, losing its motivational power. (2) The dominance of pedagogical novelty: hedonic motivation emerged as the paramount predictor of both habit (β = 0.457, p < 0.001) and behavioral intention (β = 0.336, p = 0.001). This confirms that adoption is driven by the situational interest and interactional novelty inherent in the human–AI partnership. (3) The cognitive brake mechanism: ethical awareness exhibited a divergent regulatory role. While it significantly legitimized conscious behavioral intention (β = 0.166, p = 0.011), it showed a non-significant, negative association with habit (β = −0.032, p = 0.653). This demonstrates that ethical reasoning functions as a cognitive brake (system 2) and actively disrupts the formation of mindless, automated dependency (system 1). These results provide empirical evidence for a dual regulation model of AI adoption and suggest that sustainable education requires leveraging pedagogical novelty to drive engagement while utilizing ethical awareness to prevent blind habituation.