Mind in the Machine: Perceived Minds Induce Decision Change
This research addresses the problem of understanding social influence in human-robot interaction for psychology and robotics, but it is incremental as it builds on existing theory of mind perception.
The study investigated how perceiving robots as having minds (agency and experience) influences human decision changes, finding an interactive effect between perceived experience and agency on social influence.
Recent research on human robot interaction explored whether people's tendency to conform to others extends to artificial agents (Hertz & Wiese, 2016). However, little is known about to what extent perception of a robot as having a mind affects people's decisions. Grounded on the theory of mind perception, the current study proposes that artificial agents can induce decision change to the extent in which individuals perceive them as having minds. By varying the degree to which robots expressed ability to act (agency) or feel (experience), we specifically investigated the underlying mechanisms of mind attribution to robots and social influence. Our results show an interactive effect of perceived experience and perceived agency on social influence induced by artificial agents. The findings provide preliminary insights regarding autonomous robots' influence on individuals' decisions and form a basis for understanding the underlying dynamics of decision making with robots.