Cues of Violent Intergroup Conflict Diminish Perceptions of Robotic Personhood

Abstract

Convergent lines of evidence indicate that anthropomorphic robots are represented using neurocognitive mechanisms typically employed in social reasoning about other people. Relatedly, a growing literature documents that contexts of threat can exacerbate coalitional biases in social perceptions. Integrating these research programs, the present studies test whether cues of violent intergroup conflict modulate perceptions of the intelligence, emotional experience, or overall personhood of robots. In Studies 1 and 2, participants evaluated a large, bipedal all-terrain robot; in Study 3, participants evaluated a small, social robot with humanlike facial and vocal characteristics. Across all studies, cues of violent conflict caused significant decreases in perceived robotic personhood, and these shifts were mediated by parallel reductions in emotional connection with the robot (with no significant effects of threat on attributions of intelligence/skill). In addition, in Study 2, participants in the conflict condition estimated the large bipedal robot to be less effective in military combat, and this difference was mediated by the reduction in perceived robotic personhood. These results are discussed as they motivate future investigation into the links among threat, coalitional bias and human–robot interaction.