Moral Decision-Making in the Context of Human-Autonomous Systems Interactions

In the last decades, the development of autonomous systems has significantly changed our daily lives, and their use is increasing worldwide, being used in almost all areas of human activity. The main reason for this massive use is the numerous benefits they offer, such as improving the user’s performance, reducing the risk of errors and accidents, and decreasing the mental workload, which in turn can increase the operators’ ability to monitor multiple tasks simultaneously. However, research has shown that the use of autonomy may lead to negative effects as well, such as loss of situational awareness, skill decay, and performance decrement in return-to-manual control. These negative effects are of particular concern in the context of moral situations, that is situations in which values are at stake, as they could negatively impact decisions and subsequent actions. Another important aspect of autonomous system interaction that has received increasing attention in recent years is the impact of autonomy on human agency, an important aspect of human consciousness, which it has been shown to be reduced at higher levels of autonomy and on moral decision-making. However, the available data suggest a mixed picture of the effects of autonomous systems in moral situations and on the sense of agency. Considering that autonomous systems are increasingly used in sensitive domains such as the legal, medical, or military context, there is a need for further research on this topic.

This Research Topic aims to provide an overview of the current studies and findings on the effects of autonomous systems use on human agency and moral decision-making. Submissions may be from any cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, human factors and ergonomics, or computer science disciplines, and we welcome interdisciplinary reflections to promote a constructive discussion on these aspects and to increase the knowledge on their relationship.

This Research Topic invites various contributions focusing on human-autonomous systems interaction and their impacts on decision-making and sense of agency studies. It underscores the significance of incorporating these aspects into human-machine interaction to offer valuable insights for designing future innovative autonomous systems.

Keywords: Human-autonomous systems interaction, Human performance, Moral decision-making, Sense of agency, Moral situations

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