The influence of robot autonomy on perception distance, acceptance and subjective norm

Abstract

The emergence of automatic machines is a topic of social concern. In this study, we examine the effects of robot autonomy on perceived distance, acceptance, and subjective norm. Participants watched a video of a robot performing a variety of tasks - the robot was either autonomous and able to ignore human commands, or non-autonomous and could only obey human commands. The results showed that participants who watched videos of autonomous robots generally perceived that the robot was more distant than the non-autonomous robot. On the other hand, people who watched videos of autonomous robots were less acceptive and had lower subjective norms than watched videos of non-autonomous robots. These findings can help us better study artificial intelligence and raise new questions about what giving robots autonomy would do to human perception.