Emotion-oriented systems and the autonomy of persons

Abstract

Many people fear that emotion-oriented technologies (EOT) – capable of registering, modelling, influencing and responding to emotions – can easily affect their decisions and lives in ways that effectively undermine their autonomy. In this chapter, we explain why these worries are at least partly founded: EOT are particularly susceptible to abuse of autonomy, and there are ways of respecting the autonomy of persons that EOT are unable to accomplish. We draw some general ethical conclusions concerning the design and further development of EOT, contrasting our approach with the “interactional design approach”. This approach is often thought to avoid infringements of user autonomy. We argue, however, that it unduly restricts possible uses of EOT that are unproblematic from the perspective of autonomy, while at the same time it allows for uses of EOT that tend to compromise the autonomy of persons.