When robots cross the line: consumer moral judgments of robots’ harm and authority violations

Engineering notes

Key topics: autonomous driving. See the paper for implementation details and experimental results.

Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为端到端自动驾驶、BEV感知、3D目标检测、轨迹预测、路径规划、LiDAR感知等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) and robots become embedded in everyday service interactions, consumers face not only functional failures but morally consequential violations. Integrating Moral Foundations Theory and Self-Determination Theory, this research examines how consumers morally judge robots that commit harm violations (e.g., causing financial or physical loss) or authority violations (e.g., disregarding or overriding a user's explicit choices). Across three studies involving real-time chatbot interactions in financial, health, and retail contexts, we found that moral judgment depends not only on the violation type but also on consumers’ relational motivations. Effectance-oriented individuals judge harm violations more harshly, whereas affiliation-oriented individuals react more strongly to authority violations. These effects are mediated by competence need and relatedness need frustration, respectively. This research offers a nuanced understanding of how consumers judge AI behavior through a self-referential lens, with implications for ethical AI design and communication in marketing contexts.

Links and sources

• PDF from original source

Comments