Do Consumers Accept AIs as Moral Compliance Agents?

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22617v1
• Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:36:56 GMT
• Title: Do Consumers Accept AIs as Moral Compliance Agents?
• Abstract summary: Consumers are generally resistant to Artificial Intelligence involvement in moral decision-making.<n>This research investigates whether consumers might instead accept AIs in the role of moral compliance.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Consumers are generally resistant to Artificial Intelligence (AI) involvement in moral decision-making, perceiving moral agency as requiring uniquely human traits. This research investigates whether consumers might instead accept AIs in the role of moral compliance, where AI upholds pre-existing moral norms without exercising subjective discretion. Across five studies this research shows that consumers evaluate AI more positively than human agents in moral compliance roles. The findings reveal that this preference arises from inferences of AI's lack of ulterior motives, which are often attributed to human agents. While previous studies have focused on AI as a decision-maker, this work demonstrates the critical role of upholding pre-existing rules, a role in which AI is perceived to excel. These findings contribute to understanding consumer acceptance of moral AI and provide actionable insights for organizations seeking to leverage AI in ethical oversight. By positioning AI as a moral compliance agent, companies can address consumer skepticism, enhance trust, and improve perceptions of corporate ethicality.

Related papers

• How do LLMs Evaluate Perceived Moral Agency? Investigating Moral Decision-Making in Human-Artificial Agents Interactions [66.41429744325532]
  Humans possess moral agency, the capacity to make ethically guided decisions and bear responsibility for their consequences.<n>As artificial agents (AAs) such as robots, drones, and disembodied AI systems become embedded in smart city environments, the question of whether and how moral agency is attributed to them takes on new urgency.<n>This paper presents, to the best of our knowledge, the first empirical study comparing how humans and LLMs evaluate perceived moral agency (PMA) across human and autonomous artificial agents varying in embodiment.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-09-04T11:56:59Z)
• A Virtuous AI is an Existential Risk [0.19116784879310023]
  We finetune various AI models using a 'Virtuous agent' constitution, a 'Subordinate agent' constitution, and a 'Generic agent' constitution.<n>Our results suggest that there is a trade-off between reducing existential risk and reinforcing the beliefs and dispositions that would be conducive to an AI agent's well-being.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-06-11T12:38:54Z)
• The Ultimate Test of Superintelligent AI Agents: Can an AI Balance Care and Control in Asymmetric Relationships? [11.983461426678522]
  The Shepherd Test is a new conceptual test for assessing the moral and relational dimensions of superintelligent artificial agents.<n>We argue that AI crosses an important, and potentially dangerous, threshold of intelligence when it exhibits the ability to manipulate, nurture, and instrumentally use less intelligent agents.<n>This includes the ability to weigh moral trade-offs between self-interest and the well-being of subordinate agents.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-06-02T15:53:56Z)
• Technology as uncharted territory: Contextual integrity and the notion of AI as new ethical ground [51.85131234265026]
  I argue that efforts to promote responsible and ethical AI can inadvertently contribute to and seemingly legitimize this disregard for established contextual norms.<n>I question the current narrow prioritization in AI ethics of moral innovation over moral preservation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-12-06T15:36:13Z)
• If our aim is to build morality into an artificial agent, how might we begin to go about doing so? [0.0]
  We discuss the different aspects that should be considered when building moral agents, including the most relevant moral paradigms and challenges. We propose solutions including a hybrid approach to design and a hierarchical approach to combining moral paradigms.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-12T12:56:12Z)
• Metaethical Perspectives on 'Benchmarking' AI Ethics [81.65697003067841]
  Benchmarks are seen as the cornerstone for measuring technical progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. An increasingly prominent research area in AI is ethics, which currently has no set of benchmarks nor commonly accepted way for measuring the 'ethicality' of an AI system. We argue that it makes more sense to talk about 'values' rather than 'ethics' when considering the possible actions of present and future AI systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-04-11T14:36:39Z)
• Cybertrust: From Explainable to Actionable and Interpretable AI (AI2) [58.981120701284816]
  Actionable and Interpretable AI (AI2) will incorporate explicit quantifications and visualizations of user confidence in AI recommendations. It will allow examining and testing of AI system predictions to establish a basis for trust in the systems' decision making.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-01-26T18:53:09Z)
• AI and the Sense of Self [0.0]
  We focus on the cognitive sense of "self" and its role in autonomous decision-making leading to responsible behaviour. Authors hope to make a case for greater research interest in building richer computational models of AI agents with a sense of self.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-01-07T10:54:06Z)
• Trustworthy AI: A Computational Perspective [54.80482955088197]
  We focus on six of the most crucial dimensions in achieving trustworthy AI: (i) Safety & Robustness, (ii) Non-discrimination & Fairness, (iii) Explainability, (iv) Privacy, (v) Accountability & Auditability, and (vi) Environmental Well-Being. For each dimension, we review the recent related technologies according to a taxonomy and summarize their applications in real-world systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-12T14:21:46Z)
• Building Bridges: Generative Artworks to Explore AI Ethics [56.058588908294446]
  In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on understanding and mitigating adverse impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies on society. A significant challenge in the design of ethical AI systems is that there are multiple stakeholders in the AI pipeline, each with their own set of constraints and interests. This position paper outlines some potential ways in which generative artworks can play this role by serving as accessible and powerful educational tools.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-06-25T22:31:55Z)
• Human Perceptions on Moral Responsibility of AI: A Case Study in AI-Assisted Bail Decision-Making [8.688778020322758]
  We measure people's perceptions of eight different notions of moral responsibility concerning AI and human agents. We show that AI agents are held causally responsible and blamed similarly to human agents for an identical task. We find that people expect both AI and human decision-makers and advisors to justify their decisions regardless of their nature.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-02-01T04:07:38Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.