The relationship between medical students’ attitudes toward artificial intelligence and their personality traits: a multicenter study in China

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping healthcare from clinical care and diagnostics to operations and public health and has been accelerated by recent advances in large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT. Because healthcare directly concerns human life and well-being, the use of AI must be approached with care. As AI systems are ultimately designed, implemented, and trusted by people, identifying the factors that shape medical students' attitudes toward AI is critical for safe and effective integration. Methods: In this study, attitudes toward AI were measured with the General Attitudes toward AI Scale (GAAIS), and personality traits were measured with the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2). Along with demographic information, all these data were collected via an online platform from five-year clinical medicine students in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. Correlation and linear regression were conducted. Results: Analyses indicated that openness and agreeableness were associated with higher scores of positive attitudes toward AI, whereas conscientiousness was associated with lower scores of positive attitudes toward AI. For negative attitudes toward AI, openness and agreeableness were associated with its higher scores, whereas neuroticism was associated with its lower scores. Conclusion: These results suggest that students with greater openness and agreeableness not only view AI more favorably but are also more tolerant of its limitations. In contrast, those high in conscientiousness report fewer positive views, and those high in neuroticism are less tolerant of AI shortcomings. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the associations between personality traits and attitudes toward AI in medical students in China, highlighting the need for targeted educational interventions that reflect diverse personality profiles.