Human Reaction to GenAI Threats: A Perspective of Protection Motivation Theory

Generative AI (GenAI) has instigated notable shifts across diverse sectors. Both academia and industry express concerns about ChatGPT's impact on human interaction. Focusing on users active on Stack Overflow and other platforms within Stack Exchange, this study employs a difference-in-differences method to explore their reactions to the threat posed by GenAI through the lens of protection motivation theory. Analyzing users' answering and questioning behaviors reveals a preference for posing questions and crafting longer texts and titles on platforms facing GenAI threats. Similarly, users contribute more elaborate answers on threatened platforms. However, on Stack Overflow, users generate answers with more innovation to avoid being similar to previous answers and deleted by moderators. Notably, experienced users exhibit a more pronounced response to GenAI threats. This study confirms users' awareness of the threat posed by GenAI and the effectiveness of the ban policy launched by the platform.