Parents Fear AI, Fear Falling Behind

The core insight is classic rat-race behavior: people may oppose a technology in principle, yet still buy it when they think everyone else will. That makes simple AI-safety messaging weaker than coordinated adoption rules.

• –The paper suggests social pressure, not just perceived utility, is driving AI uptake in education
• –Parents became more supportive of banning AI in schools after hearing downside info, but their own demand barely changed
• –Peer adoption mattered a lot: willingness to pay rose with reported teen usage in the region
• –For edtech and AI product teams, “responsible use” features may not be enough if the underlying adoption dynamic is competitive
• –The finding likely generalizes beyond schools to workplaces, where teams feel forced to adopt AI before they are ready