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Artificial intelligences (AIs) are widely used in tasks ranging from transportation to healthcare and military, but it is not yet known how people prefer them to act in ethically difficult situations. In five studies (an anthropological field study, n = 30, and four experiments, total n = 2150), we presented people with vignettes where a human or an advanced robot nurse is ordered by a doctor to forcefully medicate an unwilling patient. Participants were more accepting of a human nurse's than a robot nurse's forceful medication of the patient, and more accepting of (human or robot) nurses who respected patient autonomy rather than those that followed the orders to forcefully medicate (Study 2). The findings were robust against the perceived competence of the robot (Study 3), moral luck (whether the patient lived or died afterwards; Study 4), and command chain effects (Study 5; fully automated supervision or not). Thus, people prefer robots capable of disobeying orders in favour of abstract moral principles like valuing personal autonomy. Our studies fit in a new era in research, where moral psychological phenomena no longer reflect only interactions between people, but between people and autonomous AIs.

AbstractThe idea of sex with robots seems to fascinate the general public, raising both enthusiasm and revulsion. We ran two experimental studies (Ns = 172 and 260) where we compared people’s reactions to variants of stories about a person visiting a bordello. Our results show that paying for the services of a sex robot is condemned less harshly than paying for the services of a human sex worker, especially if the payer is married. We have for the first time experimentally confirmed that people are somewhat unsure about whether using a sex robot while in a committed monogamous relationship should be considered as infidelity. We also shed light on the psychological factors influencing attitudes toward sex robots, including disgust sensitivity and interest in science fiction. Our results indicate that sex with a robot is indeed genuinely considered as sex, and a sex robot is genuinely seen as a robot; thus, we show that standard research methods on sexuality and robotics are also applicable in research on sex robotics.

Artificial intelligences (AIs) are widely used in tasks ranging from transportation and healthcare to military. Many tasks carried out by autonomous AIs have consequences for human well-being, but it is still unclear how people would prefer them to act in ethically difficult situations. In six studies with data from two cultures (five quantitative experiments, n = 1569, and a qualitative anthropological field study, n = 30), we presented people with hypothetical situations where a human or an advanced robot nurse is ordered to forcefully medicate an unwilling patient. We measured moral acceptance, perceived trust, and allocation of responsibility relating to the nurse's decision of either following orders to forcefully medicate the patient, or disregarding orders to protect the patient's autonomy. Our participants were aversive to robot nurses who forcefully medicated the patient, and preferred robot nurses who respected patient autonomy by disobeying orders. Under certain conditions, the decision to respect patient autonomy was more acceptable for robot nurses than for human nurses. Thus, our results suggest that people prefer robots that are capable of disobeying orders in favor of abstract moral principles such as valuing personal autonomy. These findings were relatively robust against manipulating the nurse's perceived reputation and character, and whether or not the patient lived or died afterwards. We also found that moral judgment is distinct from evaluations of trust and responsibility. In general, our participants did not trust robot nurses or hold them responsible for their actions; on the other hand human nurses who forcefully medicated a patient were morally condemned but also trusted. It seems that Moral Psychology of Robotics is a new and increasingly relevant sub-field of moral psychology that requires extensive attention.

The idea of sex with robots seems to fascinate the general public, raising both enthusiasm and revulsion. We ran two experimental studies (Ns = 172 and 260) where we compared people’s reactions to variants of stories about a person visiting a bordello. Our results show that paying for the services of a sex robot is condemned less harshly than paying for the services of a human sex worker, especially if the payer is married. We have for the first time experimentally confirmed that people are somewhat unsure about whether or not using a sex robot while in a committed monogamous relationship should be considered as infidelity. We also shed light on the psychological factors influencing attitudes towards sex robots, including disgust sensitivity and interest in science fiction. Our results indicate that sex with a robot is indeed genuinely considered as sex, and a sex robot is genuinely seen as a robot; thus, we show that standard research methods on sexuality and robotics are applicable also in research on sex robotics.