Moral Robots? How Uncertainty and Presence Affect Humans’ Moral Decision Making

Abstract

Robots are ubiquitously embedded in today’s work life and are increasingly applied in scenarios where they take moral decisions or at least give recommendations. Accordingly, this study investigates how physical presence and robot’s uncertainty expression affect humans’ moral decision-making and robot perception. In a 2 (uncertainty expression: certain/uncertain)$$\times $$ 2 (physical presence: present/video) between-subjects lab experiment (N = 91) the robot Pepper presented a moral dilemma and expressed its decision. It was then tested if participants align with this decision and how certain they are. Moreover, their judgment on the robot’s decision as well as their perception of the robot were assessed. This study provides important implications for the human-robot interaction. Based on the present results, humans’ decision-making was not affected by behavioral variations of the robot (at least for the dilemma used). However, those variables clearly influence humans’ perception of the robot and therefore the interaction with it.