Mind Perception of Robots Varies With Their Economic Versus Social Function.

Xijing Wang,Eva G Krumhuber

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01230

Abstract

While robots were traditionally built to achieve economic efficiency and financial profits, their roles are likely to change in the future with the aim to provide social support and companionship. In this research, we examined whether the robot’s proposed function (social vs. economic) impacts judgments of mind and moral treatment. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrated that robots with social function were perceived to possess greater ability for emotional experience, but not cognition, compared to those with economic function and whose function was not mentioned explicitly. Study 2 replicated this finding and further showed that low economic value reduced ascriptions of cognitive capacity, whereas high social value resulted in increased emotion perception. In Study 3, robots with high social value were more likely to be afforded protection from harm, and such effect was related to levels of ascribed emotional experience. Together, the findings demonstrate a dissociation between function type (social vs. economic) and ascribed mind (emotion vs. cognition). In addition, the two types of functions exert asymmetric influences on the moral treatment of robots. Theoretical and practical implications for the field of social psychology and human-computer interaction are discussed.

Highlights

With the rapid advancement of technology, robots are becoming increasingly intelligent and autonomous entities with the ability to fulfill a variety of tasks
Attributions of cognition did not change in robots with economic function and those whose value was not mentioned explicitly, suggesting that robots are predominantly considered to possess economic rather than social function
Further pairwise comparisons showed that the ascribed ability for emotional experience was greater for robots with high social value than low social value (Mdifference = 10.0, p < 0.001, see Table 2) and those in the control group (Mdifference = 12.2, p < 0.001), with no significant difference between the latter two conditions, p = 0.313

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid advancement of technology, robots are becoming increasingly intelligent and autonomous entities with the ability to fulfill a variety of tasks. Robots were built mainly to achieve economic efficiency and financial profits for the corporate world (i.e., economic value). This conception, driven mainly by instrumental considerations, is likely to change as robots are starting to penetrate the social sphere (Mataric, 2006; Dautenhahn, 2007; Lin et al, 2011). Robots will become integral parts in our daily lives, appearing in public and private domains Facing this new era raises significant questions about the prospective relation between man and machine. Would the value type of the robots influence the extent to which we perceive life-like qualities in them and consider them as worthy of care and moral concern? The current research addresses this issue by exploring the impact of the robot’s proposed function (social vs. economic) on mind attribution and moral treatment

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion