Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

The Effects Of Situational And Individual Factors On Algorithm Acceptance In Covid-19-Related Decision-Making: A Preregistered Online Experiment, Sonja Utz, Lara N. Wolfers, Anja S. Göritz

Human-Machine Communication

In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, difficult decisions such as the distribution of ventilators must be made. For many of these decisions, humans could team up with algorithms; however, people often prefer human decision-makers. We examined the role of situational (morality of the scenario; perspective) and individual factors (need for leadership; conventionalism) for algorithm preference in a preregistered online experiment with German adults (n = 1,127). As expected, algorithm preference was lowest in the most moral-laden scenario. The effect of perspective (i.e., decision-makers vs. decision targets) was only significant in the most moral scenario. Need for leadership predicted a stronger …