Most people would rather lose their job to a robot than another human

Most people would rather lose(lo͞oz) their job to a robot than another human

By Chelsea(ˈCHelsē) Whyte

If you were going to lose your job, would you prefer to be replaced by a robot or another person? If you said robot, you’re in the majority(-ˈjär-,məˈjôrətē). Most people would prefer a robot to take their job if they had to lose it, but they would prefer to see another human step in if a co-worker was going to lose theirs.

“Being replaced by modern technology versus being replaced by humans has different psychological(ˌsīkəˈläjəkəl) consequences(-ˌkwens,ˈkänsikwəns),” says Armin Granulo(ˈɡranyo͞olō) at Technical University of Munich(-niKH,ˈmyo͞onik) in Germany. He and his colleagues(ˈkälˌēg) set out to examine(igˈzamən) these differences(ˈdif(ə)rəns).

They asked 300 people to judge(jəj) whether they would prefer an existing member of staff to be replaced by a robot or a human. In that case, 62 per cent of people said they preferred to have a human step in. But when they were asked to shift their perspective and imagine losing their own job, 37 per cent preferred being replaced by a human rather than a robot.

In a follow up, Granulo and his team asked 251 people to indicate the intensity(inˈtensədē) of their negative emotions such as sadness, anger or frustration when considering new employees(emˈploi-ē,ˌemploiˈē) being replaced by humans or robots. When the questions referred(rəˈfər) to replacing other people’s jobs with robots, the respondents said they had stronger negative emotions than when they considered losing their own job to a robot.


https://www.newscientist.com/article/2212417-most-people-would-rather-lose-their-job-to-a-robot-than-another-human/