How do audiences respond to knowing that an artwork was made with artificial intelligence (AI)? A new meta-analysis by CARADT Associate Professor Dr. Alwin de Rooij reveals that audiences tend to prefer human-made art, but that this bias against AI is nuanced, context-dependent, and may already be changing.
As the use of AI becomes increasingly common in artistic practice, questions arise about how this affects how audiences experience art. Psychological studies have tested whether people value and otherwise react to artworks differently when they believe they were made by a human artist or by AI. The meta-analysis, published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, synthesizes experimental evidence from 35 experiments conducted between 2017 and 2024, offering the first systematic overview of the alleged bias against AI in visual art.
The findings showed how AI labeling most strongly affects how people make sense of art. That is, it affected judgments of amongst other things creativity, authenticity, and meaning more strongly than how they perceive or feel about the artwork. As the paper notes, “knowing that AI was used in art creation can diminish aesthetic experience, independently of the objective qualities of an artwork.” In more technical terms, the bias was moderate in the knowledge–meaning neural systems of aesthetic experience (how people interpret art), but smaller in the emotion–valuation and sensory–motor systems (how they feel or perceive it).
The bias, as found in the psychological studies analyzed, appeared far from consistent. Instead, it appeared highly context-dependent and appears to be changing. Studies with older participants showed stronger bias, for example, suggesting generational differences in openness to AI. Bias was also shaped by art style and viewing context: it was weaker for abstract art and diminished further when works were viewed in galleries or laboratories rather than online. In real-world settings, it may even disappear entirely. However, few studies have tested bias in galleries or museums, limiting practical conclusions for artists and curators.
A closer look at the underlying research highlights another important issue. Many studies frame AI as an autonomous artist, which can create a “false dichotomy of ‘AI-generated art’ as distinct from ‘human-made art’.” In reality, “there always is a human being involved whose decisions shape the artwork’s aesthetics.” From designing algorithms to curating datasets and selecting outputs, human authorship remains essential. Depriving audiences from such information may lead the bias against AI in art to emerge from artificial conditions created in online and laboratory studies, which are less likely to have a counterpart in artistic and curatorial professional practice. Practical implications derived from psychological studies on bias against AI in art should therefore be treated carefully, if at all.
The article, “Bias Against Artificial Intelligence in Visual Art: A Meta-Analysis,” appears in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (American Psychological Association).
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More about the journal: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts
Citation: de Rooij, A. (2025). Bias against artificial intelligence in visual art: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000833
‘‘Understanding how creativity and imagination emerge from interactions with our environment will lead to improved innovation processes, tools and technologies.’’
Alwin de Rooij is Associate Professor in Situated Art, Design, and Technology at the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT), and Assistant Professor in Creativity Research in the department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University.
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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