Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character.
Could judgments about others' moral character be changed under group pressure produced by human and virtual agents? In Study 1 (N = 103), participants first judged targets' moral character privately and two weeks later in the presence of real humans. Analysis of how many times participants...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2024-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298293&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1797301405234495488 |
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| author | Konrad Bocian Lazaros Gonidis Jim A C Everett |
| author_facet | Konrad Bocian Lazaros Gonidis Jim A C Everett |
| author_sort | Konrad Bocian |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Could judgments about others' moral character be changed under group pressure produced by human and virtual agents? In Study 1 (N = 103), participants first judged targets' moral character privately and two weeks later in the presence of real humans. Analysis of how many times participants changed their private moral judgments under group pressure showed that moral conformity occurred, on average, 43% of the time. In Study 2 (N = 138), we extended this using Virtual Reality, where group pressure was produced either by avatars allegedly controlled by humans or AI. While replicating the effect of moral conformity (at 28% of the time), we find that the moral conformity for the human and AI-controlled avatars did not differ. Our results suggest that human and nonhuman groups shape moral character judgments in both the physical and virtual worlds, shedding new light on the potential social consequences of moral conformity in the modern digital world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:21:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a5934afaff4f4d45a4ebb04939fab3c2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:21:13Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-a5934afaff4f4d45a4ebb04939fab3c22024-02-21T05:31:53ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032024-01-01192e029829310.1371/journal.pone.0298293Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character.Konrad BocianLazaros GonidisJim A C EverettCould judgments about others' moral character be changed under group pressure produced by human and virtual agents? In Study 1 (N = 103), participants first judged targets' moral character privately and two weeks later in the presence of real humans. Analysis of how many times participants changed their private moral judgments under group pressure showed that moral conformity occurred, on average, 43% of the time. In Study 2 (N = 138), we extended this using Virtual Reality, where group pressure was produced either by avatars allegedly controlled by humans or AI. While replicating the effect of moral conformity (at 28% of the time), we find that the moral conformity for the human and AI-controlled avatars did not differ. Our results suggest that human and nonhuman groups shape moral character judgments in both the physical and virtual worlds, shedding new light on the potential social consequences of moral conformity in the modern digital world.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298293&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Konrad Bocian Lazaros Gonidis Jim A C Everett Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. PLoS ONE |
| title | Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. |
| title_full | Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. |
| title_fullStr | Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. |
| title_short | Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. |
| title_sort | moral conformity in a digital world human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298293&type=printable |
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