A political divide in AI perception? A Scoping review on politicized perception and acceptance of AI technology.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has garnered interest from social and political science researchers alongside its technical dimensions. While technology acceptance has been widely studied, there is a growing need to understand how political ideologies shape public acceptance of AI in an increasingly polarized world. This scoping review synthesizes findings from empirical studies examining ideological differences in the perception and acceptance of AI technologies, with a focus on theoretical explanations for these effects. Using PRISMA guidelines, we applied a systematic search protocol across nine academic databases, identifying 21 relevant articles. We reviewed and mapped the key research themes, constructs, methodologies, results, and theoretical rationales across studies. Our analysis highlights two main explanatory frameworks for the influence of political ideology on AI acceptance: (1) the alignment or conflict between the intended purpose and context of AI technology and the core values of different ideologies, and (2) the heightened sensitivity to threat associated with conservatism, which may reduce acceptance of AI technologies. We integrate perspectives from political and social psychology to expand on these findings, particularly regarding stimulus sampling, threat sensitivity, and ideological orientation. Notably, we observe that study results may be affected by design choices, such as stimulus selection and outcome measures. We advocate for a broader and more diverse array of empirical investigations to rigorously test these two explanations and deepen understanding of ideological influences on AI acceptance.