The competence paradox: creative competence positively supports intention but shows a significant negative direct effect on actual use behavior¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 2 studies · 2 associational r1–r2 · q2–q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Creative competence showed a significant negative direct effect on use behavior (β = −0.318, p = 0.008), contrary to the hypothesis that competence facilitates use. → Liu Y 2026 q2 i? Interviews with higher-CC students suggest stronger capability coincided with more critical judgment and selective, restrained use confined to early ideation and low-risk tasks. → Liu Y 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Liu Y 2026¶

Liu Y, Meng M and Zhang Y (2026) The competence paradox: negotiating ease, risk, and creative identity in text-to-image generative AI use among art and design students. Front. Psychol. 17:1858187. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1858187

q3 · i? · associational · r1

Direct-effects result of the latent-variable SEM on the 400-student survey: the CC→UB path printed β = −0.318, SE = 0.121, p = 0.008, and the article states "CCunexpectedlyshowedasignificantnegativedirecteffectonUB".

"In addition, CCunexpectedlyshowedasignificantnegativedirecteffectonUB, contrarytoH8c."

Liu Y 2026 (2)¶

Liu Y, Meng M and Zhang Y (2026) The competence paradox: negotiating ease, risk, and creative identity in text-to-image generative AI use among art and design students. Front. Psychol. 17:1858187. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1858187

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Explanatory qualitative follow-up interviews with 20 purposively selected students from anomalous survey profiles. Higher perceived-CC participants described T2I as a phased execution tool and tended "to confine T2I to early ideation stages and low-risk tasks".

"Among participants with higher perceived CC, stronger capability was not necessarily associated with greater reliance on T2I. Instead, it often coincided with more critical judgment,"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Performance expectancy, social influence, novelty value, and creative competence positively predict art and design students' behavioral intention to use T2I GenAI tools — related
• Exploratory multi-group analyses suggest competence-related paths differ by educational level and gender, with heterogeneity concentrated downstream of intention — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Effort expectancy and facilitating conditions negatively predict behavioral intention, contradicting conventional UTAUT assumptions in studio-based creative education — related
• Metacognition may limit creativity during the generative stage but facilitate it during the exploratory stage — related
• Behavioral intention translates only weakly into self-reported use behavior, and the extended UTAUT model explains intention formation better than enactment — related