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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

[...] In a study published today in the journal Science Robotics, researchers from Germany and the UK demonstrated that children are susceptible to peer pressure from robots. The findings, say the researchers, show that, as robots and AIs become integrated into social spaces, we need to be careful about the influence they wield, especially on the young.

The paper's authors ask, "For example, if robots recommend products, services, or preferences, will compliance [...] be higher than with more traditional advertising methods?" They note that robots are being introduced to plenty of other domains where social influence could be important, including health care, education, and security.

[...] Although it's the susceptibility of the children that leaps out in this experiment, the fact that the adults were not swayed by the bots is also significant. That's because it goes against an established theory in sociology known as "computer are social actors," or CASA. This theory, which was first outlined in a 1996 book, states that humans tend to interact with computers as if they were fellow humans. The results of this study show that there are limits to this theory, although Belpaeme says he and his colleagues were not surprised by this.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/15/17688120/social-influence-robots-ai-peer-pressure-children

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