From tools of violence to machines of uncertainty
Mapping public perceptions of autonomous weapon systems and manual weapon systems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20399112 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rita Phillips (0000-0002-4541-2565, University of Klagenfurt, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 4405-4419 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | AI & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-5666 • E-ISSN: 1435-5655 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s00146-025-02787-9 |
| OpenAlex | W7116718625 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 59 |
Autonomous weapon systems (AWS) are emerging technologies capable of selecting and engaging targets without direct human control, raising profound ethical, legal, and political concerns. Yet, little is known about how the public conceptualizes AWS, despite the relevance of public conscience for international humanitarian law and national policy-making. This study examines Austrian representations of AWS in comparison with manual weapon systems (MWS), using a within-subjects free-word association task ( N = 200) analyzed through content analysis, Hierarchical Evocation Method (HEM), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), Mantel tests, and Procrustes analyses. Findings reveal that MWS are coherently represented around pragmatic and destructive functions, whereas the central core of the AWS representation is dominated by the category ‘Unknown’. This suggests that respondents are largely unable to anchor AWS to familiar cognitive, moral, or technological schemas. Structural analyses confirm this finding, indicating AWS and MWS to constitute distinct representational fields. These results highlight the cognitive indeterminacy of AWS, illustrating how uncertainty shapes public reasoning and raising implications for democratic legitimacy and international governance
Legitimacy · Perception · Politics · Subjectivism · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology
Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots
Multidimensional Scaling
Knowledge in Context
Killer Robots
The Relationship Between Uncertainty and Affect
Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety
The Case for Ethical Autonomy in Unmanned Systems
Fear of the unknown
Generalized Procrustes Analysis
Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition
Forma Mentis Networks Reconstruct How Italian High Schoolers and International STEM Experts Perceive Teachers, Students, Scientists, and School
Social representations of teachers' dropout in the French context
Fostering knowledge integration through individual competencies
Communication and Uncertainty Management
A comparative analysis of experienced uncertainties in relation to risk communication during Covid19
Methods for Studying the Structure of Social Representations
Quantitative and qualitative centrality of a social representation's core elements
The evitability of autonomous robot warfare
Consumer reactions to unfamiliar technologies
Autonomous weapons and ethical judgments
Contagion in the Representational Field of Water Recycling
A memória histórica do regime militar ao longo de três gerações no Rio de Janeiro
Distributed morality, privacy, and social media in natural disaster response
Notes towards a description of Social Representations
The Concept of Consciousness
Rethinking the Political / -Science- / Fiction Nexus
The Affective Regulation of Uncertainty
Peace, War and Conflict
Exploring the Victimization of British Veterans
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |