Regulating Cross-Cultural Moral Sensitivity: An Image Ethic Analysis of Appearance Design of Intelligent Machine

Machine appearance is a crucial research topic in human-machine interaction, and different cultures hold different ethical attitudes toward different machine appearances. Cultural sensitivity research on appearance lacks in-depth ethical considerations, while value sensitivity research on appearance does not focus well on user-driven design concepts. Image ethics using the resources of phenomenological theory can circumvent the problems above, while a persuasive support of valid empirical research is in demand. This study’s approach to image ethics discusses differences in the moral sensitivity of image viewers from different cultures. It is designed to compare the attitudes of two groups of people towards the appearance of a machine in a scenario where two machines are interacting, by textually analyzing the results of a classroom experiment and social media comments on viewing the same image. The study finds that different cultures have different moral sensitivities to the appearance of the same machine, as evidenced by the difference in the proportion of normative and descriptive content in the viewing representations. There are structural differences in the perceptions of machine appearance among viewers from different cultures, which can be observed in the distinctive themes in the texts of the two cultures. The findings can empirically support the role of moral energizers in moderating moral sensitivity in appearance, leading to a better use of phenomenological approaches to focus on the user’s experience of using the machine, and providing cultural explanations for the affective characterization of users’ ethical perceptions.