The Minds of Machines: Children's Beliefs about the Experiences, Thoughts, and Morals of Familiar Interactive Technologies

• Published in: Developmental psychology Vol. 59; no. 6; pp. 1017 - 1031
• Main Authors: Flanagan, Teresa, Wong, Gavin, Kushnir, Tamar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01.06.2023
• Subjects: Beliefs; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Childrens Attitudes; Computer Attitudes; Decision Making; Emotions; Female; Humans; Judgment; Male; Moral Values; Morals; Robotics; Social Cognition
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001524

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[subscript age] = 7.50, SD[subscript 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 judgment of the technologies' freedom to "act otherwise" in moral scenarios changed with age, suggesting a development shift in children's understanding of technologies' limitations. Importantly, there were systematic differences between Alexa, Roomba, and Nao, that correspond to the unique characteristics of each. Together these findings suggest that children's intuitive theories of agency are informed by an increasingly technological world.