A 2022 study in Personality and Individual Differences measured how high school students felt about AI. Using the Cynical Hostility Towards AI Scale, researchers had 659 participants complete a survey about their feelings toward AI.
The study found that just because a person was cynical toward AI didn’t mean they were cynical in general or toward other people. Participants were also more distrustful of AI when they felt it was hostile or had negative intentions.
The belief that a machine can have negative intentions demonstrates the complexity of robot hate. People believe a machine can be programmed to be harmful, yet people understand that robots aren’t conscious and they don’t have the ability to suffer if we’re mean to them.
One scholar argued the fact that robots are not “morally considerable” was one of the reasons people felt comfortable with robot hate. Our sarcasm doesn’t hurt robots’ feelings. Food delivery robots aren’t traumatized by being kicked. Thus, robots can be a safe place for people (like the Jabberwacky users) to break social norms.
