Working group What if you see it? Workers’ perceptions of and reactions to Generative AI Add to calendar 2026-03-11 16:30 2026-03-11 18:00 Europe/Rome What if you see it? Hybrid Event Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia and Zoom YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Mar 11 2026 16:30 - 18:00 CET Hybrid Event, Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia and Zoom Organised by Department of Political and Social Sciences This session of the Gender Working Group features a presentation by Aina Gallego (University of Barcelona). How do workers perceive Generative AI? More as an opportunity or as a threat for their occupational prospects? And how do these perceptions influence their policy and political preferences? We conducted a survey experiment on around 6,000 workers in 98 occupations directly exposed to Generative AI, in Germany, Italy, and the US. Treated respondents are shown a video of ChatGPT performing the most frequent core task in their occupation. On average, they become more optimistic about the technology’s impact. Yet, a substantial share of treated respondents become more threatened. This leads to polarisation of policy preferences: threatened individuals increase their support for technology regulation and redistribution policies, while optimistic individuals move the other way. The threatened also express warmer attitudes toward 'backlash' political parties.Co-authors: Massimo Anelli (Bocconi University), Italo Colantone (Bocconi University), Piero Stanig (Bocconi University).The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.