Embodied Digital Technologies: First insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses.

Abstract

New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in work spaces and private spheres. It is thus crucial to understand concerns regarding their use in social and legal terms and the qualities they should possess to be accepted as ‘co-workers’. Previous research in these areas used the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to investigate, for example attributions of warmth and competence towards people who use bionic prostheses, cyborgs, and robots. In the present study, we propose to differentiate the Warmth dimension into the dimensions Sociability and Morality to gain deeper insight in how people with or without bionic prostheses are perceived. In addition, we extend our research to the perception of robots, such as industrial, social, or android robots. Since legal aspects need to be considered if robots are expected to be ‘co-workers’, we also evaluated current perceptions of robots in terms of legal questions. We conducted two studies in which participants rated visual stimuli of individuals with or without disabilities and low- or high-tech prostheses, and robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism (Study 1), or robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism (Study 2), in terms of Competence, Sociability, and Morality, and, for Study 2, Legal Personality and Decision-Making Authority. We also controlled for participants’ personality. Results showed that attributions of Competence and Morality varied as a function of technical sophistication of the prostheses. For robots, competence attributions were negatively related to Anthropomorphism. Sociability, Morality, Legal Personality , and Decision-Making Authority varied as functions of Anthropomorphism. Overall, this study provides a contribution to technological design, which aims at ensuring high acceptance and minimal undesirable side effects, both with regard to the application of bionic instruments and robotics. Additionally, first insights in whether more anthropomorphized robots will need to be considered differently in terms of legal practice are given.