Authors
Cameron W Piercy, Angela N Gist-Mackey
Publication date
2021/1/1
Journal
Human-Machine Communication
Volume
2
Pages
191-208
Publisher
Communication and Social Robotics Labs
Description
This study uses a sample of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (N = 240) who differ in skill, education, and income to replicate and extend past findings about socioeconomic disparities in the perceptions of automation. Specifically, this study applies the skills-biased technical change hypothesis, an economic theory that low-skill jobs are the most likely to be affected by increased automation (Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2019), to the mental models of pharmacy workers. We formalize the hypothesis that anxiety about automation leads to perceptions that jobs will change in the future and automation will increase. We also posit anxiety about overpayment related to these outcomes. Results largely support the skills-biased hypothesis as a mental model shared by pharmacy workers regardless of position, with few effects for overpayment anxiety.
Total citations
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