How automation level influences moral decisions of humans collaborating with industrial robots in different scenarios

INTRODUCTION: Digitalization in intelligent manufacturing leads to the development of Industry 4.0/5.0 and human-cyber-physical systems. As many production technologies rely on teaming of human workers and intelligent cyber-physical systems such as industrial robots, human-robot collaboration is an intensively investigated topic in this transdisciplinary research area. To design industrial robots in a human-centered way, psychological knowledge concerning judgment and decision-making needs to be gained and integrated. METHOD: This paper reports results from an experimental study (N = 222, 2 × 4 within-subjects design) using eight moral dilemmas framed in the context of human-robot-collaboration to examine the influence of spatial distance of an industrial robot and humans (no direct contact, different tasks vs. no direct contact, same task vs. handing-over contact, same task vs. direct contact, same task) on moral decisions. Additionally, the type of dilemma was varied, with every four dilemmas depicting a life-or-death and an injury scenario. Participants responded on a four-point-response scale which actions they would take indicating deontological or utilitarian moral decision-making. RESULTS: Results show a large effect of the proximity of the cooperation between robots and humans. The closer the collaboration the more a human tends to choose utilitarian moral choices. DISCUSSION: It is argued that this effect might stem from an adaptation of human rationality to the robot or overreliance and shift of responsibility to the robot team partner.