Human Behavior in the Age of Agentic AI: Trust, Adoption and Interaction Dynamics
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Behavioral Economics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 12 March 2027 | Viewed by 443
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Interests: e-commerce; social media; consumer behavior; service operations; sustainable operations; supply chain management
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Interests: online consumer behavior; behavioral financial science; Internet financial; digital commerce and business intelligence; human-AI interaction behavior
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid advancement of agentic artificial intelligence (AI)—autonomous systems capable of perceiving, reasoning and acting on behalf of users—has fundamentally transformed human–technology interactions. Unlike traditional AI systems that operate as passive tools, agentic AI proactively initiates actions, makes decisions and executes tasks with varying degrees of autonomy. This paradigm shift raises critical questions about how humans perceive, trust, adopt and interact with AI agents across diverse contexts.
This Special Issue seeks to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of human behavior in response to agentic AI systems. We invite contributions that examine the psychological, cognitive, social and behavioral dimensions of human–AI agent interactions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, trust formation and calibration, acceptance and resistance patterns, decision delegation behaviors, emotional and affective responses, ethical considerations and the broader societal implications of delegating agency to artificial entities.
By synthesizing insights from behavioral economics, psychology, human–computer interactions and related disciplines, this Special Issue aims to establish a comprehensive framework for understanding the evolving relationship between humans and agentic AI, ultimately informing the design of more effective, ethical and human-centered AI systems.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, reviews and conceptual papers addressing the following themes:
Theme 1: Trust and Acceptance of Agentic AI
Psychological mechanisms underlying trust formation in AI agents
Factors influencing user acceptance and resistance to AI autonomy
The role of transparency, explainability and control in trust calibration
Cultural and individual differences in AI trust
Theme 2: Behavioral Responses to AI Agency
Decision delegation patterns and user reliance behaviors
Emotional and affective responses to autonomous AI actions
Cognitive biases in human–AI agent interactions
Behavioral economics perspectives on AI-mediated choices
Theme 3: Social and Organizational Dynamics
Team collaboration between humans and AI agents
Organizational adoption and implementation challenges
Social influence and normative effects of AI agents
Human–agent collaboration in professional contexts
Theme 4: Ethical and Societal Implications
Perceptions of responsibility and accountability in AI-driven decisions
Privacy concerns and behavioral responses to AI surveillance
Equity and fairness considerations in AI agent deployment
Long-term behavioral adaptation to AI-mediated environments
Theme 5: Domain-Specific Applications
Healthcare: Patient and provider interactions with AI diagnostic agents
Finance: Investor behavior and AI-driven financial advisory
Energy: Consumer responses to smart grid and AI-managed energy systems
E-commerce: Consumer behavior in AI-agent-mediated transactions
Education: Student and teacher interactions with AI tutoring agents
Dr. Chao Wen
Dr. Benjamin George
Prof. Dr. Jiaming Fang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Agentic AI
- Human–AI interaction
- Trust in AI
- AI adoption behavior
- Autonomous systems
- Behavioral economics
- User acceptance
- AI ethics
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