Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character
Miniatura 2 & EASP Seedcorn Grant
Founded by the National Science Center in Poland and the
European Association of Social Psychology
This project examines how social conformity influences moral character judgments, particularly in the context of human and nonhuman agents. While traditional research has focused on how people conform to human groups, little is known about how avatars and AI-controlled agents affect moral decision-making.
Key Research Questions
Do people conform to AI-controlled agents and avatars as strongly as they do to humans?
Does the perception of human agency drive the effect of conformity to nonhuman agents?
How do social pressures shape moral evaluations of good and bad actors?
Methods & Approach
Behavioral experiments in real and virtual environments using an adaptation of the Asch conformity paradigm. Participants will evaluate moral character of different agents privately and under social pressure from either:
Human confederates
Human-controlled avatars
AI-controlled agents
Key Publications
Bocian, K., Everett, J., & Gonidis, L. (2024). Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. PLoS ONE 19(2): e0298293. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298293 [PDF].