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Seeing Minds in Others - Can Agents with Robotic Appearance Have Human-Like Preferences?

ABSTRACT: Ascribing mental states to non-human agents has been shown to increase their likeability and lead to better joint-task performance in human-robot interaction (HRI). However, it is currently unclear what physical features non-human agents need to possess in order to trigger mind attribution and whether different aspects of having a mind (e.g., feeling pain, being able to move) need different levels of human-likeness before they are readily ascribed to non-human agents. The current study addresses this issue by modeling how increasing the degree of human-like appearance (on a spectrum from mechanistic to humanoid to human) changes the likelihood by which mind is attributed towards non-human agents. We also test whether different internal states (e.g., being hungry, being alive) need different degrees of humanness before they are ascribed to non-human agents. The results suggest that the relationship between physical appearance and the degree to which mind is attributed to non-human agents is best described as a two-linear model with no change in mind attribution on the spectrum from mechanistic to humanoid robot, but a significant increase in mind attribution as soon as human features are included in the image. There seems to be a qualitative difference in the perception of mindful versus mindless agents given that increasing human-like appearance alone does not increase mind attribution until a certain threshold is reached, that is: agents need to be classified as having a mind first before the addition of more human-like features significantly increases the degree to which mind is attributed to that agent.

SUBMITTER: Martini MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4706415 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Seeing Minds in Others - Can Agents with Robotic Appearance Have Human-Like Preferences?

Martini Molly C MC Gonzalez Christian A CA Wiese Eva E

PloS one 20160108 1

Ascribing mental states to non-human agents has been shown to increase their likeability and lead to better joint-task performance in human-robot interaction (HRI). However, it is currently unclear what physical features non-human agents need to possess in order to trigger mind attribution and whether different aspects of having a mind (e.g., feeling pain, being able to move) need different levels of human-likeness before they are readily ascribed to non-human agents. The current study addresses ...[more]

PMID: 26745500

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Project description:Although vertebrates have been reported to gain higher reproductive outputs by choosing mates, few studies have been conducted on threatened species. However, species recovery should benefit if natural mate choice could improve reproductive output (i.e. pair performance related to offspring number, such as increased clutch size, numbers of fertilized egg and fledglings). We assessed the evidence for major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-based mate preference in the endangered crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) and quantified the impacts of such choice on reproductive output. We tested the hypothesis that crested ibis advertise "good genes" through external traits, by testing whether nuptial plumage characteristics and body morphology mediate mate choice for underlying genetic MHC variation. We found differences between males and females in preferred MHC genotypes, external traits used in mate choice and contributions to reproductive outputs. Females preferred MHC-heterozygous males, which had darker [i.e. lower total reflectance and ultraviolet (UV) reflectance] nuptial plumage. Males preferred females lacking the DAB*d allele at the MHC class II DAB locus, which had higher average body mass. DAB*d-free females yielded heavier eggs and more fledglings, while MHC-heterozygous males contributed to more fertilized eggs and fledglings. Fledging rate was highest when both parents had the preferred MHC genotypes (i.e. MHC-heterozygous father and DAB*d-free mother). Comparisons showed that free-mating wild and semi-natural pairs yielded more fertilized eggs and more fledglings, with a higher fledging rate, than captive pairs matched artificially based on pedigree. Conservation programmes seldom apply modern research results to population management, which could hinder recovery of threatened species. Our results show that mate choice can play an important role in improving reproductive output, with an example in which an endangered bird selects mates using UV visual capability. Despite the undoubted importance of pedigree-based matching of mates in conservation programmes, we show that free mating can be a better alternative strategy.

Dataset Information

Seeing Minds in Others - Can Agents with Robotic Appearance Have Human-Like Preferences?

Publications

Seeing Minds in Others - Can Agents with Robotic Appearance Have Human-Like Preferences?

Similar Datasets

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