Authors
Teresa Flanagan, Gavin Wong, Tamar Kushnir
Publication date
2023/6
Journal
Developmental psychology
Volume
59
Issue
6
Pages
1017
Publisher
American Psychological Association
Description
Children are developing alongside interactive technologies that can move, talk, and act like agents, but it is unclear if children's beliefs about the agency of these household technologies are similar to their beliefs about advanced, humanoid robots used in lab research. This study investigated 4–11-year-old children's (N= 127, M age= 7.50, SD age= 2.27, 53% females, 75% White; from the Northeastern United States) beliefs about the mental, physical, emotional, and moral features of two familiar technologies (Amazon Alexa and Roomba) in comparison to their beliefs about a humanoid robot (Nao). Children's beliefs about the agency of these technologies were organized into three distinct clusters—having experiences, having minds, and deserving moral treatment. Children endorsed some agent-like features for each technology type, but the extent to which they did so declined with age. Furthermore, children's …
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