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Robot Preachers Get Less Respect, Fewer Donations
Robots, AI programs may undermine credibility of religious groups, study finds [apa.org]:
As artificial intelligence expands across more professions, robot preachers and AI programs offer new means of sharing religious beliefs, but they may undermine credibility and reduce donations for religious groups that rely on them, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
"It seems like robots take over more occupations every year, but I wouldn't be so sure that religious leaders will ever be fully automated because religious leaders need credibility, and robots aren't credible," said lead researcher Joshua Conrad Jackson, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago in the Booth School of Business.
[...] Jackson and his colleagues conducted an experiment with the Mindar humanoid robot [youtube.com] at the Kodai-Ji Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The robot has a humanlike silicon face with moving lips and blinking eyes on a metal body. It delivers 25-minute Heart Sutra [wikipedia.org] sermons on Buddhist principles with surround sound and multi-media projections.
Mindar, which was created in 2019 by a Japanese robotics team in partnership with the temple, cost almost $1 million to develop, but it might be reducing donations to the temple, according to the study.
The researchers surveyed 398 participants who were leaving the temple after hearing a sermon delivered either by Mindar or a human Buddhist priest. Participants viewed Mindar as less credible and gave smaller donations than those who heard a sermon from the human priest.
[...] "Robots and AI programs can't truly hold any religious beliefs so religious organizations may see declining commitment from their congregations if they rely more on technology than on human leaders who can demonstrate their faith," Jackson said.
Journal Reference:
Jackson, J. C., Yam, K. C., Tang, P. M., Liu, T., & Shariff, A. (2023). Exposure to robot preachers undermines religious commitment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001443 [doi.org]
