Moral Compass, Machine Trust
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Synopsis
As AI systems increasingly act as teammates rather than tools, understanding the human factors behind trust becomes essential. This study examines whether a person’s intrinsic honesty—a preference for truthful behavior without external enforcement—predicts trust and cooperation with an AI partner. University participants first completed a private reporting task that reveals honesty tendencies, then interacted with an AI agent in a simple cooperation game. Two results stand out. First, lower intrinsic honesty was associated with markedly lower trust in, and cooperation with, the AI. Second, framing the AI with prosocial language (e.g., serving a social or public interest) did not raise trust; in some cases, it reduced it. The results suggest that moral dispositions shape how people evaluate AI partners and that simple prosocial cues may backfire. For AI design, building trust requires not only performance and transparency but also alignment with users’ ethical expectations.
Speaker
Dr Dinithi Jayasekara is an Economist and a Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities. Her doctoral research focuses on the dynamics of culture and its link to technology innovation and adoption. The research explicitly examines how deep-seated cultural differences and institutions jointly explain cross-country variations in technology adoption behaviours and preferences. It also explores economic behaviours of individuals by blending techniques from experimental economics with insights from psychology. Her research interests include applied econometrics, economic growth, long-run development, and behavioural economics.
She is currently attached to Chen Tianqiao Programme on Urban Innovation and Open Loop Careers project.
Booking
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