We perceive a mind in a robot when we help it

Tanibe, Tetsushi; Hashimoto, Takaaki; Karasawa, Kaori

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0180952

Cited by 40 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The robot’s human likeness resided in its abilities to express emotions and respond to emotional displays of others, as detailed by the vignette used as a stimulus in the study. Another recent vignette experiment demonstrated that attributions of mind were facilitated in the context of a positive moral interaction, when participants imagined a situation of actively helping a robot (Tanibe, Hashimoto, & Karasawa, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Avatars in Pain: Visible Harm Enhances Mind Perception in Humans and Robots

Swiderska

Küster

2018

Perception

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous research has shown that when people read vignettes about the infliction of harm upon an entity appearing to have no more than a liminal mind, their attributions of mind to that entity increased. Currently, we investigated if the presence of a facial wound enhanced the perception of mental capacities (experience and agency) in response to images of robotic and human-like avatars, compared with unharmed avatars. The results revealed that harmed versions of both robotic and human-like avatars were imbued with mind to a higher degree, irrespective of the baseline level of mind attributed to their unharmed counterparts. Perceptions of capacity for pain mediated attributions of experience, while both pain and empathy mediated attributions of abilities linked to agency. The findings suggest that harm, even when it appears to have been inflicted unintentionally, may augment mind perception for robotic as well as for nearly human entities, at least as long as it is perceived to elicit pain.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The studies by Ward et al. (2013) and Tanibe et al. (2017) indicate that robots may be seen as relevant actors in complex sociomoral scenarios.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Avatars in Pain: Visible Harm Enhances Mind Perception in Humans and Robots

Swiderska

Küster

2018

Perception

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To our knowledge, a standardized Japanese scale for mind attribution has not yet been developed; developing such a scale is thus an important issue. That said, recent findings suggest that the multidimensional structure of mind attribution found in Western samples is consistently found in Japan, although a few differences are found between studies (Takahashi et al, 2016; Kamide et al, 2017; Tanibe et al, 2017). Therefore, despite some potential cultural differences, we can say that the concept and measurement of mind attribution have a certain degree of universality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Attributing Mind to Groups and Their Members on Two Dimensions

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychological research has revealed that people attribute mental states to groups such as companies, especially to those groups that are highly entitative. Moreover, attributing a mind to a group results in the decreased attribution of mind to individual group members. Recent research has demonstrated that the minds of others are perceived in two dimensions—agency and experience. The present study investigated the possibility that this two-dimensional structure exists in mind attribution to groups, and group entitativity has different patterns of relations with these dimensions. A vignette experiment revealed that highly entitative groups were attributed both agency and experience to greater degrees compared to non-entitative groups, while group entitativity reduced only the attribution of agency to the individual group members. Individual members were attributed an equivalent amount of experience regardless of group entitativity. Mind attribution to individual members showed an unpredicted third factor of other-recognition, which was positively related to group entitativity. The implications of mind attribution to moral issues were discussed.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, malevolent agents were viewed as less worthy of moral consideration, and this effect was mediated through reductions in perceived agency. Finally, lending initial support to the converse argument of a humanisation effect through benevolent intentions, mind perception was facilitated if participants imagined actively helping a robot in a recent vignette study (Tanibe et al, 2017). This raises the question if mind-imbuing intentions indeed need to be harmful in nature, or if benevolent intentions, as expressed by signals of love, cuteness or affection might be equally, or even more, potent drivers of enhanced mind attribution towards human-like robots or human avatars.…”

Section: Perceiving Less Mind: Moral Typecasting or Dehumanisation?mentioning

confidence: 89%

Seeing the mind of robots: Harm augments mind perception but benevolent intentions reduce dehumanisation of artificial entities in visual vignettes

Küster

Swiderska

2020

Int J Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A ccording to moral typecasting theory, good-and evil-doers (agents) interact with the recipients of their actions (patients) in a moral dyad. When this dyad is completed, mind attribution towards intentionally harmed liminal minds is enhanced. However, from a dehumanisation view, malevolent actions may instead result in a denial of humanness. To contrast both accounts, a visual vignette experiment (N = 253) depicted either malevolent or benevolent intentions towards robotic or human avatars. Additionally, we examined the role of harm-salience by showing patients as either harmed, or still unharmed. The results revealed significantly increased mind attribution towards visibly harmed patients, mediated by perceived pain and expressed empathy. Benevolent and malevolent intentions were evaluated respectively as morally right or wrong, but their impact on the patient was diminished for the robotic avatar. Contrary to dehumanisation predictions, our manipulation of intentions failed to affect mind perception. Nonetheless, benevolent intentions reduced dehumanisation of the patients. Moreover, when pain and empathy were statistically controlled, the effect of intentions on mind perception was mediated by dehumanisation. These findings suggest that perceived intentions might only be indirectly tied to mind perception, and that their role may be better understood when additionally accounting for empathy and dehumanisation.

show abstract

We perceive a mind in a robot when we help it

Cited by 40 publications

References 15 publications

Avatars in Pain: Visible Harm Enhances Mind Perception in Humans and Robots

Avatars in Pain: Visible Harm Enhances Mind Perception in Humans and Robots

Attributing Mind to Groups and Their Members on Two Dimensions

Seeing the mind of robots: Harm augments mind perception but benevolent intentions reduce dehumanisation of artificial entities in visual vignettes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About