Children's mental, social, and moral attributions toward a familiar digital voice assistant

Abstract

Children judge robots and computers based on social contingency, but little is known about how children treat semi-socially contingent devices like digital voice assistants. This study investigated children's attributions toward digital voice assistants. Children ages 6–10 (Mage = 8.46; 41 boys and 39 girls) from predominately white, upper-middle class families identified a familiar digital voice assistant and indicated whether it had mental, social, and moral attributes. For some questions, children also justified their responses. A majority of children assigned some mental or social attributes to digital voice assistants, but younger children were more likely than older children to view the digital voice assistant as having social and moral attributes. In their justifications, children who did not assign mental, social, or moral attributes to digital voice assistants more frequently noted the device's status as an artifact and its subsequent technological limitations. Children who did assign human-like attributes to a voice assistant more frequently cited the device's mental states and abilities. These findings suggest that younger children may be quicker to see new interactive technologies as social partners than older children and, consequently, to learn from and to share personal information with these devices.