A Robot's Moral Advice Is Not Appreciated Neither in Functional nor in Social Communication

This study (N = 317) investigated the influence of verbal communication (social vs. functional) on the acceptance of robot recommendations in non-moral, somewhat moral or very moral decision-making situations. The robot’s communication style had no impact on the participants (1) being confident in their decision, (2) perceiving the robot’s recommendation as helpful, and (3) making a decision dependent on the robot’s recommendation. However, all three aspects were strongly influenced by the morality of the decision situation demonstrating higher algorithm aversion in moral contexts.