웹툰 독자들은 정말 AI 웹툰을 싫어할까?웹툰에서의 AI 활용과 표기에 따른 이용자 반응에 대한 탐색적 연구

Webtoons, grounded in fandom and intellectual property (IP), have emerged as a representative form of snackable content that has grown on a global scale. Against the backdrop of the recent ‘AI boycott’ phenomenon in the entertainment industry, which has heightened attention to the social acceptance of AI, this study analyzes user attitudes toward the use and disclosure of AI in webtoons. The experiment was designed with three conditions: ‘no disclosure,’ ‘AI disclosure,’ and ‘human intelligence disclosure (HID).’ The results indicate no significant differences between no disclosure and AI disclosure, or between no disclosure and human intelligence disclosure; however, human intelligence disclosure elicited significantly more positive attitudes than AI disclosure. In addition, high-involvement users responded more sensitively to both AI and human disclosures. By empirically examining user attitudes in the context of webtoons, this study contributes to expanding the scope of AI acceptance research. Furthermore, by demonstrating that human intelligence disclosure produces the most favorable effects, the study introduces HID as a new framing strategy to mitigate potential content avoidance triggered by the spread of AI-generated content.