MACHINES, SOCIAL ATTRIBUTIONS, AND ETHOPOEIA - PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS OF COMPUTERS SUBSEQUENT TO SELF-EVALUATIONS OR OTHER-EVALUATIONS

We show that individuals use inappropriate social rules in assessing m achine behavior. Explanations of ignorance and individuals' views of m achines as proxies for humans are shown to be inadequate; instead, ind ividuals' responses to technology are shown to be inconsistent with th eir espoused beliefs. In two laboratory studies, computer-literate col lege students used computers for tutoring and testing. The first study (n = 22) demonstrates that subjects using a computer that praised its elf believed that it was more helpful, contributed more to the subject 's test score, and was more responsive than did subjects using a compu ter that criticized itself, although the tutoring and testing sessions were identical. In the second study (n = 44), the praise or criticism came from either the computer that did the tutoring or a different co mputer. Subjects responded as if they attributed a ''self'' and self-f ocused attributions (termed ''ethopoeia'') to the computers. Specifica lly, subjects responses followed the rules ''other-praise is more vali d and friendlier than self-praise'', ''self-criticism is friendlier th an other-criticism'', and ''criticizers are smarter than praisers'' to evaluate the computers, although the subjects claimed to believe that these rules should not be applied to computers.