The Influence of Culture and Religious Ideologies on Public Trust in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Among the Christian-Igbo People of Southeast, Nigeria

Abstract

Since the early 2010s, the rapid embedding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into everyday systems has raised several concerns, especially in terms of public trust and safety. Nowhere else are these concerns more prevalent than in societies where religious and cultural ideologies strongly guide social perception and moral judgment. Nigerians, particularly the Igbo-Christians, are a people strongly tied
to their cultural and religious affiliations. Consequently, public perceptions of innovative concepts such as AI within this group are often heavily based on societal ideologies rather than on sole technical performance. This study is aimed at exploring the impact of these societal influences on the public perception of trust in AI systems. The study is anchored in the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory and Cultural Cognition Theory. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study, where data from a total sample of 230 Nigerian Igbo-Christians were collected. The study questionnaire comprised 20 Likert-scale questions designed to be analysed using both descriptive statistics and non-parametric inferential tests. The study found that both religious (Christian) and cultural (Igbo) ideologies impacted public views and trust levels in AI. This trust was significantly stronger in younger individuals due to early AI exposure, as opposed to the older population, who expressed more scepticism regarding the morality of AI use, as well as its autonomy. The study concluded that public perception of AI is heavily skewed by both cultural and religious ideologies, indicating that AI trust is a socially based construct, as opposed to being solely built on technical prowess or accuracy. This study therefore recommends that future AI integration efforts and policies, particularly in Nigeria, should also incorporate both cultural and religiously aligned frameworks if widespread adoption and sustained public trust is to be achieved.