--- title: "Scientists Find That Human Workers Get Lazier When Their Teammate Is a Robot" description: "Don't get too used to having a robot colleague at work. You might start screwing up without even realizing it." date: "2023-10-21" modified: "2023-10-21" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/human-workers-lazier-with-robot-teammate" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "the digest" - "workplace" - "workplace automation" --- # Scientists Find That Human Workers Get Lazier When Their Teammate Is a Robot ![Don't get too used to having a robot colleague at work. You might start screwing up without even realizing it.]() *Self confidence in business \Image: Andrew Bret Wallis/Getty Images\* ## Group Project Human employees may be getting a little too used to their robot co-workers. New research finds that when we work alongside a robot, we tend to get a little lazier — just like how some of us will take it easy knowing that a diligent colleague will pick up the slack. The research, published [in the journal *Frontiers in Robotics and AI*](), suggests that this so-called "social loafing" is a sign that humans are finally seeing robots as their teammates, for better or worse. "Teamwork is a mixed blessing," study co-author Dietlind Helene Cymek, a researcher at the Technical University of Berlin, said in a [statement]() about the work. "Working together can motivate people to perform well but it can also lead to a loss of motivation because the individual contribution is not as visible." ## Meat Loaf For the experiment, the researchers directed participants to inspect images of circuit boards for manufacturing defects, so the researchers could precisely track their work. One group was told the boards had already been inspected by a robot, which they could hear working nearby. The other group thought they were working alone. The findings? That those working with the robot missed more defects and had significantly higher error rates — even though both parties spent about the same amount of time inspecting the boards. Kathleen Richardson, a professor of ethics of culture and AI at De Montfort University in the UK, says that the results were likely in part a symptom of considering robots to be colleagues rather than tools. "This anthropomorphism is getting out of hand, honestly," Richardson, who was not involved in the study, [told *New Scientist*](). "It's this idea that there is a collaborative process going on that I reject," she added. "It just strikes me that workers are doing what they've always done, which is in situations where they think a tool can do something, they let it," she added. ## Pay Me! The researchers believe that this kind of social loafing could be dangerous. The last thing you'd want, after all, is someone whose job it is to double check things for safety to be less thorough. But Richardson suggests that bad management could be the real culprit. "I bet you if there was an incentive behind it, and if the humans could get an extra bonus for spotting \[errors in\] the chips, then they'd put a bit more effort into it," she told *New Scientist*. Outside the workplace, this unconscious phenomenon, where our brains sort of go on autopilot when a robot is assisting us with a task, can arguably be seen in the realm of [self-driving cars](). Wherever it's used, it's worth being just as cautious with tech that automates important tasks. **More on workplace robots:** *[$75,000 FDNY Robodog Goes to Work, Falls Over Almost Immediately]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()