Social RoboticsRobot preachers are seen as less credible and draw fewer donations
Studies at a Kyoto temple, a Singapore temple and online point to a religious credibility gap.
Research led by Joshua Conrad Jackson of the University of Chicago, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, compared robot and human preachers. Visitors to Kyoto's Kodai-ji temple rated sermons from the Mindar robot as less credible and gave less than those who heard a human priest, and a Singapore Taoist temple experiment with Pepper found similar effects. An online study of US Christians found AI-written sermons were also judged less credible, because people felt AI cannot truly think or feel. The work suggests limits to robots in roles that depend on sincere belief.
Source: ScienceDaily
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