Do humans grant moral consideration to anthropomorphic robots? (opens in new tab)

As robots are increasingly integrated into daily life, they take on subjective moral roles as agents, patients, or proxies. However, their status as moral patients, meaning entities deserving of moral concern, remains unclear. This study (N = 606) used three experiments to examine how physical anthropomorphism and mind-based anthropomorphism influence moral judgments and decisions regarding harming robots. Experiment 1 manipulated physical anthropomorphism using visual stimuli in third-party ...