Cesar Sandoval, Conrad Liszka, Haley Narita, Dominique Davis, Jayden Ramirez de Arellano, & Dr. Weldon Zane Smith
Currently there are many facets and dimensions within the bodies of research that are human-computer interaction (HCI), human-robot interaction (HBI), and human-Artificial intelligence interaction (HAII). Topics within these fields often revolve around investigating the application of their associated technologies in various healthcare, education, and companionship roles, as well as the social effects associated with human interactions in social contexts (Lambert et al.,2020). In terms of social effects, it has been documented that when people interact with non-human intelligence exhibiting social cues, they tend to apply social rules possibly assessing them as social actors (Nass et al., 1994). While findings like these may be beneficial to the determining the types of general attitudes one would experience, studies do not seem to have investigated an individual’s perception of agency ascribed to non-human intelligences. Research in this niche area may yield considerations for the future development of robot and artificial intelligence (AI) systems which are going to be interacted with regularly by humans. Another area in which these bodies of research do not seem to touch upon often is the effect of individual personality traits on the perception of these systems. Personality traits, such as those featured in the “Big Five” model, are typically reliable descriptors of how an individual meaningfully behaves across various situations on average (Roberts, 2009). The use of these traits could be useful in the identification of behavioral and cognitive processes which lend to the attribution of agency and positive attitudes towards non-human systems. The present study seeks to fill this niche gap in current HCI, HRI, and HAII research by investigating whether individuals perceive modern AIs of today as agents and specifically as agents which are capable of moral decision making, as well as examining whether the there is a significant effect of the “Big Five” personality traits on the attribution of moral agency. Participants will be sampled from the general US population through a panel service and regression analyses will be employed to investigate the relationship between personality traits and perceptions of AI.