Lack of effort or lack of ability? Robot failures and human perception of agency and responsibility

Abstract

Research on human interaction has shown that considering an agent’s actions related to either effort or ability can have important consequences for attributions of responsibility. In this study, these findings have been applied in a HRI context, investigating how participants’ interpretation of a robot failure in terms of effort -as opposed to ability- may be operationalized and how this influences the human perception of the robot having agency over and responsibility for its actions. Results indicate that a robot displaying lack of effort significantly increases human attributions of agency and –to some extent- moral responsibility to the robot. Moreover, we found that a robot’s display of lack of effort does not lead to the level of affective and behavioral reactions of participants normally found in reactions to other human agents.