A study by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School has discovered people tend to see AI as more rational than human decision-making, which, according to respondents, is most influenced by emotion. What makes humans human may just be our downfall.
Led by behavioural scientists, Dr Suhas Vijayakumar, Dr Yuna Yang, and Dr David DeFranza, an economic game was set up putting real money on the table. Participants had to choose between accepting or rejecting unfair financial offers from a human and AI partner. Both would put forward a share of $1, with $0.90 going to the partner and $0.10 for the participant. If the offer was rejected, both the participant and partner would leave with nothing.
The rational decision human decision would be to accept this offer, no matter how unfair it seems. After all, the participant will at least walk away with something. Interestingly, however, those who interacted with AI were more likely to accept the unfair offer, signalling more rational decision-making.
The researchers noted that the decision may not be caused by AI itself. Instead, people may just change their behaviour because they are interacting with something more logical, becoming more rational to match that expectation.
The findings suggest the true influence AI has on influencing real-world decisions, highlighting the potential implications that could face businesses worldwide, particularly in negotiations where human-AI interactions are becoming more commonplace.
The researchers state that decision-makers must recognise that people already have assumptions on how AI “thinks,” whether it be logical, subjective, or unbiased. It’s these beliefs that can shape how someone trusts AI outputs and whether they will follow its recommendations. The impact of AI is not about the technology, but how we all perceive it, which can subsequently influence final decisions.
Dr Vijayakumar commented, “We speculate perhaps a reason why people are less likely to accept a similar unfair offer from a person (human), could also be because of expectations of reciprocity and emotional fairness that we share with other human beings. Future research needs to look at further expectations and beliefs about AI.”
The next time you need to make a life-changing decision, consulting both AI and human input may lead to a more rational outcome as intuition meets algorithm.
(Image source: Pixabay under licence.)
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