Caught in the Current: Rethinking Research Anxiety and Creativity in the Age of AI

Context Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming an increasingly common part of research practice, assisting with tasks such as idea generation, literature searching, and data analysis. While AI offers significant promise to enhance research innovation, existing studies reveal the prevalence of anxiety about AI tools among students and researchers, as well as concerns about the potential negative impact of researchers’ overreliance on AI tools and its diminishment of originality. Strategies have been proposed to reduce research anxiety in students, but little research focuses on early-career researchers (ECRs) nor individual differences. The challenge the project addresses This project will address the challenge of understanding how early-career researchers emotionally navigate the integration of AI into their research practice, focusing on the interplay between research anxiety, emotional creativity (EC), and creativity. As AI tools increasingly influence idea generation and research outputs, researchers face growing anxiety and uncertainty about maintaining their creative contribution. ECRs are particularly vulnerable to the impact of AI as they often lack experiences and resources; it is at this key stage of their career these researchers need to develop experiences which enhance their perspective and over-reliance on these tools could stifle critical experiences necessary. EC is linked to emotional processing and creative abilities. Individual differences in EC may help explain why some researchers adapt positively to AI while others feel more anxious in response to AI advances. Under the current financial pressures on higher education in the UK, this project could offer timely and impactful insights to develop guidelines for policy and use in implementation for researchers in managing anxiety to sustain creativity in an AI-enhanced research environment. Aims and objectives The aim of this fellowship is to enhance ECRs’ emotional resilience and sustain creativity in response to the fast-growing use of AI tools in research. Specifically, the project seeks to understand how EC shapes ECRs’ experiences of AI-related anxiety and their creativity. The objectives are (1) to generate new evidence on the relationships between EC, anxiety, and creativity across disciplines; (2) to capture the lived experiences of ECRs adapting to AI integration; (3) to develop practical strategies that support researchers and institutions in building healthier, more creative research environments. Using a mixed-methods implementation science framework, a combination of surveys, in-depth interviews, and facilitated workshops will be used to achieve the objectives. Potential applications and benefits This project will generate new knowledge on how ECRs across disciplines experience the integration of AI into their research practice, providing fresh insights into emotional responses and creative processes in an AI-enhanced research environment. By introducing EC into this investigation, the study offers an innovative, interdisciplinary perspective on individual differences in managing AI anxiety and sustaining creativity. The findings will inform practical recommendations for researchers and institutions, offering practical strategies for training, support, and research culture development. At the policy level, the research will highlight which disciplines and researcher groups are most impacted, guiding future funding priorities and institutional practices to foster a healthier, more inclusive research environment in the age of AI.