Understanding, Demystifying and Challenging Perceptions of Gig Worker Vulnerabilities

Gig workers face several vulnerabilities, which are rarely discussed among peers due to the absence of infrastructure for mutual support. To understand how individual gig workers perceive such vulnerabilities and why they continue to pursue such labor, we conducted a scalable two-phase study to probe their rationales. In Phase I, participants (N = 236) rated their agreement with five commonly misconstrued vulnerabilities. In Phase II, we challenged participants who held one or more myth(s) (N = 204) to defend their views, after which we presented an expert- or LLM-generated counterargument to their rationale. Our findings show how workers are underexposed to the personal and shared vulnerabilities of gig work, revealing a knowledge gap where persuasive interventions may help workers recognize such hidden conditions. We discuss the implications of our results to support collective bargaining of workers' rights and reflect on the effectiveness of different persuasion strategies.