Developmental changes in the perceived moral standing of robots

Bibliographic Data

ID21306382
AuthorsMadeline G Reinecke (0000-0002-5944-0209, Continental (United Kingdom), corresponding author), Matti Wilks (0000-0003-3814-3763, University of Edinburgh), Paul Bloom (0000-0003-2335-3389, University of Toronto)
Year2025
Volume254
Pages105983
Publication date2025-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCognition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-0277 • E-ISSN: 1873-7838
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105983
PMID39522429
OpenAlexW4404200596
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited33

Emerging evidence suggests that children may think of robots-and artificial intelligence, more generally-as having moral standing. In this paper, we trace the developmental trajectory of this belief. Over three developmental studies (combined N = 415) and one adult study (N = 156), we compared participants' judgments (Experiments 1-3) and donation choices (Experiment 4) towards a human boy, a humanoid robot, and control targets. We observed that, on the whole, children endorsed robots as having moral standing and mental life. With age, however, they tended to deny experiential mental life to robots, which aligned with diminished ascription of moral standing. Older children's judgments more closely mirrored those of adult participants, who overwhelmingly denied these attributes to robots. This sheds new light on children's moral cognitive development and their relationship to emerging technologies

Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Developmental psychology · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology · Social Robot Interaction and HRI

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