[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-82979-en":3,"doc-seo-82979-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},82979,687197207639,"Asher","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","Beyond Accuracy How Humans Evaluate Legally Correct but Socially Controversial Legal Advice from Machines","AI systems increasingly provide legal advice, prompting questions about whether people trust guidance that is legally correct yet socially contentious. A preregistered survey experiment with 3,348 adults in mainland China tested evaluations of identical advice when attributed to AI or a human lawyer, with reasoning presented or omitted. AI attribution produced no net change in perceived reasonableness, but opposing mediators emerged: perceived objectivity increased reasonableness while reduced comprehensiveness and attention to special circumstances decreased it. Reasoning raised reasonableness regardless of source.","Beyond Accuracy: How Humans Evaluate Legally Correct but Socially Controversial Legal Advice from Machines  \nBenjamin Minhao Chena Zhiyu Lib1  \na Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong  \nb Associate Professor in Law and Policy, Durham Law School, Durham University  \nAbstract  \nAI systems are increasingly used to provide legal advice, raising questions about whether laypeople accept guidance from algorithms—especially when that advice is legally correct but socially controversial. We report a preregistered survey experiment with 3,348 adults in mainland China examining how people evaluate identical legal advice when it is attributed either to an AI system or to a human lawyer, and when it is accompanied by reasoning or not.  \nContrary to expectations of algorithm aversion, attribution to an AI system has no net effect on perceived reasonableness. However, mediation analyses reveal opposing psychological pathways underlying this null result. AI-attributed advice is perceived as more objective, which increases perceived reasonableness, but also as less comprehensive and less attentive to special circumstances, which decreases perceived reasonableness. By contrast, providing legal reasoning substantially increases perceived reasonableness regardless of source, largely by enhancing perceptions of objectivity. Qualitative responses corroborate this tension between objectivity and contextual sensitivity in evaluations of legal advice.  \nTogether, these findings suggest that public responses to AI legal advisors are shaped not by rigid attitudes toward automation, but by the balancing of competing normative expectations. The results have implications for theories of algorithm aversion and the design of AI recommendation systems in normatively salient domains.  \nKeywords: Algorithmic aversion, legal advice, attribution, reasoning, objectivity  \nAuthor Note: All authors have approved the submission and declare no conflicts of interest. The study protocol was approved by the relevant institutional ethics committees, and all participants provided informed consent before participation. This research was supported by the University of Hong Kong Lasting Impact Fund.  \n1 Corresponding author. Durham University, Law School, PCL 176, The Palatine Centre, Stockton Rd., Durham, UK. E-mail address: [zhiyu.li@durham.ac.uk](zhiyu.li@durham.ac.uk).  \n1 INTRODUCTION  \nArtificial Intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being designed to support and in some cases substitute for the opinion of trained experts. Among the various applications of generative AI, the dispensation of legal advice represents a use case that is important for the liberty and welfare of citizens. Everyone is assumed to know the law, and ignorance, as the saying goes, is no excuse. Yet the price of legal counsel, even for simple matters, can be exorbitant. Large Language Models (LLMs) and related technologies promise to make legal knowledge more accessible than ever before. By offering personalized information about rights, duties, and obligations, AI counsellors can assist individuals in planning their affairs and resolving their disputes. These benefits, however, can only be fully realized if ordinary people are amenable to AIgenerated legal advice. Users may not act on legal information if they are not confident in the provider’s neutrality or competence. They may also seek a second opinion, thereby incurring duplicative costs. An exploration of the factors that influence how laypeople process legal advice from AI systems is thus critical and timely.  \nWe examine how ordinary people respond to AI systems as legal advisors. Although similar research questions have recently been broached by others (Hagan, 2024; Seabrooke, et al., 2024; Schneiders, et al., 2025) , this study makes two distinct contributions to our understanding of human-computer interaction in the legal domain. First, it probes how individuals assess the reasonableness of advice ascribed to","cbCaiiPz2Yi7Rjgj","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiPz2Yi7Rjgj","pdf",1385766,5,1,22,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Algorithmic advice\n# (Subsequent sections not fully shown in provided text)","[{\"question\":\"What does the study test about AI-provided legal advice?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how adults evaluate identical legal advice depending on whether it is attributed to an AI system or a human lawyer, and whether accompanying legal reasoning is provided.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the main finding about attributing advice to AI?\",\"answer\":\"Attribution to an AI system has no net effect on perceived reasonableness of the advice, contrary to algorithm-aversion expectations.\"},{\"question\":\"How does providing legal reasoning affect judgments?\",\"answer\":\"Including legal reasoning substantially increases perceived reasonableness regardless of whether the source is AI or a human, largely by strengthening perceptions of objectivity.\"}]",1784184434,55,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"beyond-accuracy-how-humans-evaluate-legally-correct-but-socially-controversial-legal-advice-from-machines","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/beyond-accuracy-how-humans-evaluate-legally-correct-but-socially-controversial-legal-advice-from-machines/82979/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-24","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What does the study test about AI-provided legal advice?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"It examines how adults evaluate identical legal advice depending on whether it is attributed to an AI system or a human lawyer, and whether accompanying legal reasoning is provided.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"What is the main finding about attributing advice to AI?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"Attribution to an AI system has no net effect on perceived reasonableness of the advice, contrary to algorithm-aversion expectations.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How does providing legal reasoning affect judgments?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"Including legal reasoning substantially increases perceived reasonableness regardless of whether the source is AI or a human, largely by strengthening perceptions of objectivity.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]