Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: With the development of AI and robotic technology, interest in robots and AI's morality has been growing.However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of people's judgment of robots in morally critical situations.Prior research has shown mixed results regarding the comparison between human and robot agents in terms of moral responsibility.This dissertation provides an in-depth review of literature on people's moral judgments toward robots and identifies the context information as a potential factor that influences this process.It proposes that the distinct patterns, yet in seemingly opposite directions, of blame attribution toward humans versus robots result from the presence of external causes and reasons.However, it is unknown which type of reasons can lead to the distinct pattern.In addition, it is unclear whether the perspective of mental state inferences may account for the differences in blame judgments between humans and robots.This dissertation attempts to fill this gap through three research questions: (1) how do people attribute blame to robots that violate traffic rules and cause harm? ( 2) To what extent does mental state attribution account for these judgments?and (3) How does the presence of humanitarian justification influence blame attribution toward robots?
Institution: Nagoya University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7145230538