The Effects Of Psychological Distances On Individuals’ Moral Judgments Towards Human And Autonomous Robots’ Behavior

Moral judgement is the activity which individuals give moral value to others or things based on moral norms or value.Autonomous robots are intelligent robots that can make decisions autonomously and act in accordance with human instructions which are not necessary.Previous studies on the moral judgment of autonomous robots have focused more on differences of individuals’ moral judgments between autonomous robots and human,and are less concerned about other influencing performer.Psychological distance is an important influencing factor of moral judgment.Previous studies have shown that in moral dilemma,subjects are more likely to take utilitarian behaviors in close psychological distance,while they are more likely to take deontology behaviors in far psychological distance.At present,no research has investigated whether psychological distance affects individuals’ moral judgments towards human and autonomous robots.To address this issue,this study examined the effects of spatial,social,and temporal distances on individuals’ moral judgments towards human and autonomous robots’ behavior.Experiment 1 explored the influence of spatial distance on individuals’ moral judgment of human and autonomous robots,and used 2(performer: autonomous robots or human)× 2(spatial distance: far or close)× 2(moral dilemma type: impersonal or personal)× 2(actual behavior: utilitarian or deontology)four-factor mixed experimental design.The dependent variable was the subject’s expected behavior of the performer and moral level and the evaluation of blame of actual behavior.Experiment 2 explored the influence of social distance on individuals’ moral judgment of human and autonomous robots,and used 2(performer: autonomous robots or human)× 2(social distance: far or close)× 2(moral dilemma type: impersonal or personal)× 2(actual behavior: utilitarian or deontology)four-factor mixed experimental design,The dependent variable was the subject’s expected behavior of the performer and moral level and the evaluation of blame of actual behavior.Experiment 3 explored the influence of temporal distance on individuals’ moral judgment of human and autonomous robots,and used 2(performer: autonomous robots or human)× 2(temporal distance: far or close)× 2(moral dilemma type: impersonal or personal)× 2(actual behavior: utilitarian or deontology)four-factor mixed experimental design.The dependent variable was the subject’s expected behavior of the performer and moral level and the evaluation of blame of actual behavior.Through the above three experiments,the followings were found;(1)Individuals maked significantly different moral judgments of autonomous robots and human;they more expected autonomous robots to take utilitarian behaviors;In general,subjects considered the utilitarian behaviors of autonomous robots more moral than human’s,,and the deontology behaviors of autonomous robots were more blameful than human’s;(2)Psychological distance had an effect on individuals’ moral judgments of human and autonomous robot,In terms of spatial distance,in personal moral dilemmas,the subjects expected no significant difference in moral behaviors of autonomous robots and human under close spatial distance.In impersonal moral dilemmas,the subjects expected differently in moral behaviors of autonomous robots and human under close spatial distance,they more expected human to take deontology behaviors,so do in two types of moral dilemmas under far spatial distance;In terms of social distance,in impersonal moral dilemmas,the subjects more expected the autonomous robots to take utilitarian behaviors under far distance;They expected no significant difference in moral behaviors of autonomous robots and human in other situations;In terms of temporal distance,the subjects considered deontology behaviors of autonomous robots more blameful than humans’ s under close temporal distance.Therefore,different dimensions of psychological distance had various effects on individuals’ moral judgment of human and autonomous robots.