---
id: "claim-low-literacy-adoption"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["¶2"]
tags: ["empirical-finding", "adoption-metrics"]
related: ["concept-ai-receptivity-paradox", "contrarian-education-adoption-link"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Chiara Longoni", "Gil Appel", "Stephanie M. Tully"]
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-edu-39-understanding-ai-not-embrace"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/07/why-understanding-ai-doesnt-necessarily-lead-people-to-embrace-it"
sourceTitle: "Why Understanding AI Doesn’t Necessarily Lead People to Embrace It"
---
# Lower AI literacy predicts greater receptivity to AI

**Claim (confidence: high, testable):** Individuals and populations with lower average AI literacy are more open to adopting and embracing AI than those with higher literacy levels.

**Evidence base:** A combination of cross-country datasets — [[entity-tortoise-media]] ("AI talent" as a country-level literacy proxy) and [[entity-ipsos]] (country-level interest in using AI) — plus **six U.S.-based studies involving thousands of participants**. Across these, the relationship is consistent and predictive. This is the empirical spine of the [[concept-ai-receptivity-paradox]] and the basis for the contrarian thesis [[contrarian-education-adoption-link]].

> **Validation (enrichment): Supported.** The central paper *"Lower Artificial Intelligence Literacy Predicts Greater AI Receptivity"* ([[entity-journal-of-marketing]]; working paper via [[entity-org-marketing-science-institute]]) reports a series of surveys and lab experiments consistent with the "six U.S.-based studies" description. The [[entity-org-center-for-ai-policy]] ("lower literacy–higher receptivity link") and [[entity-org-gw-trustworthy-ai-initiative]] independently confirm the pattern. Frame it as a documented AI-specific finding, not proof that education *always* reduces adoption.