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A Construction Manual for Robots' Ethical Systems pp 63–81Cite as

Shall I Show You Some Other Shirts Too? The Psychology and Ethics of Persuasive Robots

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Part of the book series: Cognitive Technologies ((COGTECH))

Abstract

Social robots may provide a solution to various societal challenges (e.g. the aging society, unhealthy lifestyles, sustainability). In the current contribution, we argue that crucial in the interactions of social robots with humans is that social robots are always created to some extent to influence the human: Persuasive robots might (very powerfully) persuade human agents to behave in specific ways, by giving information, providing feedback and taking over actions, serving social values (e.g. sustainability) or goals of the user (e.g. therapy adherence), but they might also serve goals of their owners (e.g. selling products). The success of persuasive robots depends on the integration of sound technology, effective persuasive principles and careful attention to ethical considerations. The current chapter brings together psychological and ethical expertise to investigate how persuasive robots can influence human behaviour and thinking in a way that is (1) morally acceptable (focusing on user autonomy, using deontological theories as a starting point for ethical evaluation) and (2) psychologically effective (focusing on effectiveness of persuasive strategies). These insights will be combined in a case study analysing the moral acceptability of persuasive strategies that a persuasive robot might employ while serving as a clothing store clerk.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank Prof. Dr. Cees Midden and the persuasive technology group at Human–Technology Interaction and Ethics at the Eindhoven University of Technology for crucial input for this chapter. This research was in part made possible by funding from the NWO MVI project ‘Wise choices and Smart Changes: The moral and psychological effectiveness of persuasive technologies’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human-Technology Interaction, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jaap Ham

  2. Department of Philosophy and Ethics of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Andreas Spahn

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  1. Jaap Ham
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  2. Andreas Spahn
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Correspondence to Jaap Ham .

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  1. Center for Brian Research Medical University of Vienna, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) of the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies (OSGK), Vienna, Austria

    Robert Trappl

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Ham, J., Spahn, A. (2015). Shall I Show You Some Other Shirts Too? The Psychology and Ethics of Persuasive Robots. In: Trappl, R. (eds) A Construction Manual for Robots' Ethical Systems. Cognitive Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21548-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21548-8_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21547-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21548-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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