- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 13,000
The results of a study by psychology academics in Germany suggest we may lose the future human-robot war due to simple compassion or gullibility: in an experiment testing the interaction between people and desktop-sized robot “Nao,” researchers found that many had trouble switching it off when it was configured to beg for its life.
In a questionnaire afterwards, the most popular reason for keeping Nao on, if they chose to do so, was that they “felt sorry for the robot," because it told them about its fear of the dark. The next-most popular reason was that they “did not want to act against the robot’s will." A couple of people left Nao on simply because they didn’t want to mess up the experiment.
In a questionnaire afterwards, the most popular reason for keeping Nao on, if they chose to do so, was that they “felt sorry for the robot," because it told them about its fear of the dark. The next-most popular reason was that they “did not want to act against the robot’s will." A couple of people left Nao on simply because they didn’t want to mess up the experiment.