The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots
Abstract In the era of renewed fascination with AI and robotics, one needs to address questions related to their societal impact, particularly in terms of moral responsibility and intentionality. In seven vignette-based experiments we investigated whether the consequences of a robot or human’s actio...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-02-01
|
| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79027-5 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1823862529090125824 |
|---|---|
| author | Ziggy O’Reilly Serena Marchesi Agnieszka Wykowska |
| author_facet | Ziggy O’Reilly Serena Marchesi Agnieszka Wykowska |
| author_sort | Ziggy O’Reilly |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract In the era of renewed fascination with AI and robotics, one needs to address questions related to their societal impact, particularly in terms of moral responsibility and intentionality. In seven vignette-based experiments we investigated whether the consequences of a robot or human’s actions, influenced participant’s intentionality and moral responsibility ratings. For the robot, when the vignettes contained mentalistic descriptions, moral responsibility ratings were higher for negative actions consequences than positive action consequences, however, there was no difference in intentionality ratings. Whereas, for the human, both moral responsibility and intentionality ratings were higher for negative action consequences. Once the mentalistic descriptions were removed from the vignettes and the moral responsibility question was clarified, we found a reversed asymmetry. For both robots and humans, participants attributed more intentionality and praise, for positive action consequences than negative action consequences. We suggest that this reversal could be due to people defaulting to charitable explanations, when explicit references to culpable mental states are removed from the vignettes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ed728d7aaee241a1906b60d3f217c123 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-ed728d7aaee241a1906b60d3f217c1232025-02-09T12:29:46ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-02-0115112210.1038/s41598-024-79027-5The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robotsZiggy O’Reilly0Serena Marchesi1Agnieszka Wykowska2Italian Institute of Technology, Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction (S4HRI)Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of PadovaItalian Institute of Technology, Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction (S4HRI)Abstract In the era of renewed fascination with AI and robotics, one needs to address questions related to their societal impact, particularly in terms of moral responsibility and intentionality. In seven vignette-based experiments we investigated whether the consequences of a robot or human’s actions, influenced participant’s intentionality and moral responsibility ratings. For the robot, when the vignettes contained mentalistic descriptions, moral responsibility ratings were higher for negative actions consequences than positive action consequences, however, there was no difference in intentionality ratings. Whereas, for the human, both moral responsibility and intentionality ratings were higher for negative action consequences. Once the mentalistic descriptions were removed from the vignettes and the moral responsibility question was clarified, we found a reversed asymmetry. For both robots and humans, participants attributed more intentionality and praise, for positive action consequences than negative action consequences. We suggest that this reversal could be due to people defaulting to charitable explanations, when explicit references to culpable mental states are removed from the vignettes.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79027-5Side-effect effectIntentionalityMoral responsibilityHumanoid robotsAction consequence valencePraise and blame |
| spellingShingle | Ziggy O’Reilly Serena Marchesi Agnieszka Wykowska The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots Scientific Reports Side-effect effect Intentionality Moral responsibility Humanoid robots Action consequence valence Praise and blame |
| title | The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| title_full | The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| title_fullStr | The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| title_short | The impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| title_sort | impact of action descriptions on attribution of moral responsibility towards robots |
| topic | Side-effect effect Intentionality Moral responsibility Humanoid robots Action consequence valence Praise and blame |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79027-5 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ziggyoreilly theimpactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots AT serenamarchesi theimpactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots AT agnieszkawykowska theimpactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots AT ziggyoreilly impactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots AT serenamarchesi impactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots AT agnieszkawykowska impactofactiondescriptionsonattributionofmoralresponsibilitytowardsrobots |