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Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character

Bocian, Konrad, Gonidis, Lazaros, Everett, Jim A.C. (2024) Moral conformity in a digital world: Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character. PLOS ONE, 19 (2). Article Number e0298293. ISSN 1932-6203. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0298293) (KAR id:105003)

Abstract

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.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298293
Uncontrolled keywords: Humans, Character, Morals, Interpersonal Relations, Social Behavior, Social Conformity, Judgment
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Funders: National Science Center (https://ror.org/03ha2q922)
European Association of Social Psychology (https://ror.org/0251g2d64)
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Depositing User: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 16 Feb 2024 16:31 UTC
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2024 11:40 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/105003 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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