Children’s perceptions of the moral worth of live agents, robots, and inanimate objects
File version
Author(s)
Nielsen, Mark
Draheim, Madeline
Redshaw, Jonathan
Vanman, Eric J
Wilks, Matti
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract
This study examined children’s moral concern for robots relative to living and nonliving entities. Children (4–10 years of age, N = 126) watched videos of six different entities having a box placed over them that was subsequently struck by a human hand. Children were subsequently asked to rate the moral worth of each agent relating to physical harm. Children afforded robotic entities less moral concern than living entities but afforded them more moral concern than nonliving entities, and these effects became more pronounced with age. Children’s tendency to ascribe mental life to robotic and nonliving entities (but not living entities) predicted moral concern for these entities. However, when asked to make moral judgments relating to giving the agent away, children did not distinguish between nonliving and robotic agents and no age-related changes were identified. Moreover, the tendency to ascribe mental life was predictive of moral concern only for some agents but not others. Overall, the findings suggest that children consider robotic entities to occupy a middle moral ground between living and nonliving entities and that this effect is partly explained by the tendency to ascribe mental life to such agents. They also demonstrate that moral worth is a complex multifaceted concept that does not demonstrate a clear pattern across different ontological categories.
Journal Title
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
187
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology
Artificial intelligence
Sociology and social studies of science and technology
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Sommer, K; Nielsen, M; Draheim, M; Redshaw, J; Vanman, EJ; Wilks, M, Children’s perceptions of the moral worth of live agents, robots, and inanimate objects, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2019, 187, pp. 104656