Certain stimuli in the environment reliably, and perhaps in- evitably, trigger human cognitive and behavioral responses. We suggest that the presence of such “trigger stimuli” in modern robots can have disconcerting consequences. We provide one new example of such consequences: a reversal of a pattern of moral judgments people make about robots, depending on whether they view a “mechanical” or a “hu- manoid” robot.
@inproceedings{mallescheutz16aaaiss,
title={Inevitable Psychological Mechanisms Triggered by Robot Appearance: Morality Included?},
author={Malle, Bertram F. and Scheutz, Matthias},
year={2016},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2016 AAAI Spring Symposium},
url={https://hrilab.tufts.edu/publications/mallescheutz16aaaiss.pdf}
}