The Relationship of The Penny Beliefs Weapons Scale to Robotic Peacekeeper Compliance and Trust

Abstract

Military personnel have focused their efforts on delegating dangerous duties to robots and other automated devices. Such duties include complex tasks such as peacekeeping. The current study explores the use of robotic peacekeepers across different cultures wielding non-lethal weapons (NLWs) in a virtual environment. We predicted that weapon acceptability would differ as a function of culture, compliance rate, and citizenship (native vs. expatriate). Results showed that participants complied significantly more often when the robotic peacekeeper requested an item that was not a weapon than when the item itself was a weapon. Further, Chinese and Americans reported highest weapons approval. Implications for future research are discussed.