Is it morally acceptable for a system to lie to persuade me?
Table 3: Significant Effects from Generalized Estimating Equation analysis - ***, p
['[EMPTY]', 'df', '[ITALIC] Wald χ2']
The frequency of positive responses is generally not very high: at the global level less than half of our sample (43%) found our stimuli morally acceptable. This tendency is confirmed by the inspection both of the marginals and of the frequencies for each combination of the three factors. In summary, the attitude of our subjects towards the persuasion situations they were presented with was at best mildly positive and, on average, mildly negative. The effects of our three factors (Agent, Scenario and Strategy) on moral acceptability judgments were investigated by means of a Generalized Estimating Equations analysis, using logit as a link function. The Agent factor produced no main, and it entered no interaction, effects. There is, therefore, no evidence that the nature of the persuading agent (human vs. machine) affected in any way the moral acceptability of our stimuli.