back to article Kids are more likely than adults to submit to peer pressure from robots

Children are more likely than adults to buckle under peer pressure from robots, according to a study published in Science on Wednesday. “People are known to change their behavior and decisions to conform to others, even for obviously incorrect facts. Because of recent developments in artificial intelligence and robotics, …

  1. Dave 15

    and they say

    They say the younger generation is clever beyond our wildest dreams yet a simple test with a simple robot and they crumble. No wonder most of them cant even change a car wheel

    Those unrestricted geniuses apparently all voted to stay in the EU, maybe their robot told them? Always thought there was something a bit suspicious about libdems and Cameron

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: and they say

      No, you get thick people and clever people in every generation, to assume otherwise is foolish. I bet you're one of these people that blames millennial's for all of societies woes when realistically it's all down to the pursuit of money by those that already have it.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: and they say

        "one of these people that blames millennial's for all of societies woes"

        Methinks your apostrophe sense has atrophied. It's a millennial thing, near as I can tell.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: and they say

          I blame auto correct and I'm not a millennial, too old for that shit.

    2. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: and they say

      They say the younger generation is clever beyond our wildest dreams yet a simple test with a simple robot and they crumble.

      Cleverness and submission to peer pressure aren't mutually exclusive.

      You can be clever AND be weak in face of peer pressure.

      It's more of a psychological health issue, and it's not only millenials or young people.

      Children are and always have been frail.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: You can be clever AND be weak in face of peer pressure.

        You might also be clever and so play along with the crowd when necessary, in order to maintain or strengthen group ties for your later advantage. Especially if its only for an essentially meaningless "guess the length" test rather than anything important.

      2. JLV

        Re: and they say

        so true. see slavery, the Holocaust and similars. you’d like to think you’d have more ethical yourself, but if all your peers said it was ok...

        children? sure, but not like the adults are immune.

        not negative on the human condition. but being part of the mob, left or right, is however always a risk to be aware of.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: and they say

      Eeerrrr... this thread isn't about Brexit. Could you go talk about it somewhere else? (Like Gab?)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: and they say

      Hey Dave 15, you seem like a clever sort of chap. Your comment about robots and voting for the EU, can you explain what you mean?

      Coz from what I've seen of the polling of those who voted to come out of the EU, they don't even know what a fucking computer is.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

    Alexa, Cortana, Siri, all these "robots" are infesting our homes, that is true. I doubt there will be much peer pressure from them anytime soon, though, especially since, in my experience, people who gush over these gadgets are the ones who have just got one. After a few weeks, the novelty has worn off and most of them just shut them down or unplug them.

    And actual, humanoid-ish robots shuffling around the house are still a twinkle in some researcher's eye.

    I don't think we need to worry about robots raising our children wrong yet. Not until they can cook, do the dishes and clean the house. You add a nanny program to that and then yes, we might be in trouble.

    But the Jetsons was a kid's cartoon, not a documentary. No need to worry for a while yet.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

      "Read The Manual"? "Release To Manufacturing"? Shirley not "Real Time Monitoring" ...

      But concur. Robots won't be useful around the house until they can dig the spuds, do the dishes, fetch me the mail and a beer and change the sprog's nappies. All in one unit, mind, most folks are still on 60 amp service.

      1. Nick Kew

        Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

        Robot Team Member?

        Robots *are* useful around the house, and if you're old enough to have lived without use of a washing machine you really know it!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

          Sheesh peeps, do you not read El Reg? It's RotM ffs.

          1. Haku

            Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

            I think I'll only really start getting worried when robots have the manual dexterity to take a set of keys out of a pocket, select the right one and unlock a door, in complete darkness, with one hand - something that most of us are capable of doing, even after staggering home from the pub, drunk :)

    2. onefang

      Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

      "Not until they can cook, do the dishes and clean the house."

      You left out changing nappies and driving mums taxi.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

        Robots driving? Shit, I don't even want the computer warning me that I'm drifting out of my lane in a corner ... 99 times out of 100 I'm on the correct line, it's the paint that's in the wrong place.

        1. Allan George Dyer
          Trollface

          Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

          @jake - "99 times out of 100 I'm on the correct line, it's the paint that's in the wrong place"

          Couple of questions:

          Is that what you told the Police?

          Did you really have 100 accidents?

          Have an upvote for arrogancerighteousness!

    3. Guus Leeuw

      Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

      Dear Sir,

      "I don't think we need to worry about robots raising our children wrong yet". Meaning humans are raising their children not "wrong"?

      Define "wrong" ;-)

      Best regards,

      Guus

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

        Wrong in this case is "incorrect according to the parent". Unfortunately, it would seem that the current batch of parents don't actually want to parent, they foist the job off on anything other than themselves. Thus, they are raising their children "not wrong". They are raising them "not right", too. In fact, they are raising their children. Not.

        Now define "robot".

        1. imanidiot Silver badge

          Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

          The problem with the current generation of parents as I see it is that they've never actually been shown/taught how to BE good parents. Their parents already didn't give a good example (silent generation traumatised by being raised in war-time, babyboomer being raised by those who experienced that war-time). GenX then continued that bad parenting trend and millenials will continue it further.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

            GenX then continued that bad parenting trend and millenials will continue it further.

            They won't actually; they won't be parents at all.

            Try to reproduce while your parents are in the next bedroom, when your balls have been sterilised by mobile phone radiation.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: RTM is well on its way, but not here yet

      But the Jetsons was a kid's cartoon, not a documentary. No need to worry for a while yet.

      The Ali G Show was a comedy show, not a documentary. Now listen to how millennials speak.

  3. JLV
    Headmaster

    Either the word peer has a meaning that I didn't know of, or "peer pressure from robots" seems hard to achieve if the subjects under test are human children.

    Aside from that quibble, interesting.

    @Dave. Brilliant segue into the Brexit debate. Totally relevant. Esp, as "children aged from seven to nine years old" were obviously voting in a referendum 2 years ago.

    1. jake Silver badge

      I don't think 7-9 year olds voted for/against Brexit ...

      ... but they sure seem to argue about it all over TehIntraWebTubes.

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      It's the current year.

      Esp, as "children aged from seven to nine years old" were obviously voting in a referendum 2 years ago.

      If toddlers can be racist, they can damned well vote!

  4. Grikath

    So....

    Is this the new kind of "research" , which just like US "patents" simply add "by a [current fad technology] " to things that are already well established?

    Kids are easily manipulated. It's a given. We call desireable * manipulation education and upbringing. We call the undesireable Bad Influence. Whether that manipulation is done by parents, teachers , the media, or their own age group is irrelevant.

    So really... should we be impressed by this because it's published in Science, or simply dump it with the rest of the modern *ahem* research done in social sciences.

    * given your flavour of mores, $deity, and personal fetishes.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: So....

      It's about grant money. While the findings and testing fall into the "no s*** that's obvious" department, they did get paid and possibly some academic accolades.

  5. nuked
    FAIL

    Pressure?

    This is not peer pressure. 'Groupthink', maybe.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Pressure?

      Robots don't think.

      How about "testing for resistance to brainwashing"?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Danger Will Robinson!

  7. Nick Kew
    Flame

    U wot?

    Come on now, El Reg. I know we get inadequately-presented studies here, but talking "critical" vs "neutral" tests without even a hint at your terms really is pushing it!

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Terminator

    "Come with me if you want to live"

    Ok, Robot!

  9. Chris G

    Peers

    So the RotM is here, the machines are now our peers!

    Or is this another example of research carried out by people who don't even understand their own language well enough to describe their work?

    Has this research been 'peer' reviewed?

    1. onefang
      Coat

      Re: Peers

      I peered at this research and think the robot peers idea went pear shaped.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Proper Method for Dealing With a Robot?

    http://pbfcomics.com/comics/truancy-bot/

  11. Long John Brass
    FAIL

    Human bloody nature...

    Anyone with eyes in their head and a brain between their ears that has seen kids interacting with each other will quickly realise they are pack animals; and with good reason! Children are small weak and vulnerable, as such the bigger the heard the safer they are.

    The robots in question are very "childlike" it's no surprise that kids would be swayed by them.

  12. Michael Strorm Silver badge

    The Metallic Ones have evidently got more sophisticated at indoctrinating kids than they were when I was that age and this was the height of pro-robot propaganda.

    1. jake Silver badge
      Pint

      Ah, you wacky Brits.

      Us Yanks had learned to ignore toy robots half a generation earlier. 1967's Class B-9-M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot had shown us how useless the concept was. Except the immortal Robby, of course. And every 14 year old boy's favorite robot, 1964's very own AF 709.

      Contemporary with your Mickey, this was the height of Yank robot indoctrination in 1980. Some of us had high[0] hopes of actual useful spud digging, nappy changing household robots back then. We have now grown up, and realize that due to the scope of the problem it's unlikely in even my grand daughter's lifetime.

      Beer, because it helps when fiddling about with such contraptions.

      [0] Looking back, I think "high" was the key word in that paragraph ...

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