Manipulation by humanoid consulting and sales hardware robots from an ethical perspective

Abstract

Nowadays, humanoid robots are already being used for several purposes as in the education system, patient care, hotel business, and retail sectors. In doing so, these humanoid robots are becoming increasingly intelligent and less and less distinguishable from human behaviour, making them well suited for consulting and sales assistance in retail stores. According to several studies, it is only a matter of time before the technology will reach the point when people will no longer deal with human advisors/sellers in retail stores but with humanoid robots. However, it is well-known that human advisors/sellers usually manipulate customers during the sales pitch in order to sell them products or services that do not meet their needs. Therefore, the question arises whether humanoid robots could also manipulate customers in retail stores to obtain an advantage (e.g. economic benefit). The purpose of this study is both to provide transparency in the area of negative manipulation by humanoid robots and to fill the gap in ethical considerations of customer manipulation by humanoid consulting and sale assistance robots in retail stores. The main research question of this study is to determine whether it is ethical to intentionally program humanoid consulting and sales hardware robots with manipulation techniques to influence the customer’s purchase decision in retail stores (RQ1). Moreover, to answer this central question, five sub-questions (SQ) were defined and answered based on an extensive literature review and a survey conducted with potential customers of all ages....