Factors influencing college student intention to use ChatGPT with an integrated TAM and IDT model

As generative AI tools rapidly enter higher education, the determinants and mediating mechanisms underlying Chinese college students' intention to use ChatGPT remain underexplored, particularly regarding innovation-related perceptions beyond conventional TAM-style direct effects. This study examines the factors that drive Chinese college students' intention to use ChatGPT by integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), introducing perceived popularity and perceived compatibility to extend the model. Questionnaires were distributed to 451 college students through a combination of purposive sampling and convenience sampling, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation and bootstrapping to test the hypothesized relationships and mediation effects. The results showed that perceived compatibility and perceived popularity had significant positive effects on intention to use ChatGPT; perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use played partial mediating roles in the relationships between perceived compatibility, perceived popularity, and use intention; and perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness jointly formed significant sequential mediation paths linking perceived compatibility and perceived popularity to use intention. Overall, the study clarifies a TAM-IDT-based mechanism through which innovation-related perceptions shape students' intention to adopt ChatGPT, offering implications for enhancing educational value by improving task-tool fit, usability support, and benefit salience in higher education.