People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots

Minha Lee; Peter A.M. Ruijten; Lily E. Frank; Yvonne A.W.  de Kort; Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445284

People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots

Minha Lee, Peter A.M. Ruijten, Lily E. Frank, Yvonne A.W. de Kort, Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

257 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

As robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people’s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publication	Making Waves, Combining Strengths
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	1-11
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-8096-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445284
Publication status	Published - 6 May 2021
Event	2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2021 - Virtual, Online, Yokohama, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2021
Abbreviated title	CHI 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	8/05/21 → 13/05/21
Other	"Making Waves, Combining Strengths"
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/

Keywords

Blame
punishment
morality
responsibility gap
retribution gap
retributive justice
robots
human-robot interaction
human-computer interaction
Punishment
Retribution gap
Retributive justice
Morality
Human-robot interaction
Responsibility gap
Robots

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10.1145/3411764.3445284

mlee_Blame_punish_robots_CHI2021Final published version, 1.68 MB

Cite this

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title = "People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots",

abstract = "As robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people{\textquoteright}s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.",

keywords = "Blame, punishment, morality, responsibility gap, retribution gap, retributive justice, robots, human-robot interaction, human-computer interaction, Punishment, Retribution gap, Retributive justice, Morality, Human-robot interaction, Responsibility gap, Robots",

author = "Minha Lee and Ruijten, {Peter A.M.} and Frank, {Lily E.} and {de Kort}, {Yvonne A.W.} and IJsselsteijn, {Wijnand A.}",

year = "2021",

month = may,

day = "6",

doi = "10.1145/3411764.3445284",

language = "English",

pages = "1--11",

booktitle = "CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery, Inc",

address = "United States",

note = "2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2021, CHI 2021 ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

url = "https://chi2021.acm.org/",

}

Lee, M , Ruijten, PAM , Frank, LE , de Kort, YAW & IJsselsteijn, WA 2021, People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots. in CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths., 715, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 1-11, 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2021, Yokohama, Japan, 8/05/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445284

People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots. / Lee, Minha ; Ruijten, Peter A.M.; Frank, Lily E. et al.
CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2021. p. 1-11 715.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AU - Lee, Minha

AU - Ruijten, Peter A.M.

AU - Frank, Lily E.

AU - de Kort, Yvonne A.W.

AU - IJsselsteijn, Wijnand A.

PY - 2021/5/6

Y1 - 2021/5/6

N2 - As robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people’s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.

AB - As robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people’s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.

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KW - punishment

KW - morality

KW - responsibility gap

KW - retribution gap

KW - retributive justice

KW - robots

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KW - human-computer interaction

KW - Punishment

KW - Retribution gap

KW - Retributive justice

KW - Morality

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BT - CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Y2 - 8 May 2021 through 13 May 2021

ER -

People May Punish, Not Blame, Robots

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