Faster Robots Demoralize Co-Workers

It's not whether you win or lose; it's how hard the robot is working. A Cornell-led team has found that when robots are beating humans in contests for cash prizes, people consider themselves less competent and expend slightly less effort--and they tend to dislike the robots. The study, "Monetary-Incentive Competition Between Humans and Robots: Experimental Results," brought together behavioral economists and roboticists to explore how a robot's performance affects humans' behavior and reactions when they're competing against each other simultaneously. The findings validate behavioral economists' theories about loss aversion, which predicts that people won't try as hard when their competitors are doing better, and suggests how workplaces might optimize teams of people and robots working together. "Humans and machines already share many workplaces, sometimes working on similar or even identical tasks," says Guy Hoffman, assistant professor in Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.