Alicia von Schenk

Fri, Apr 8, 2022 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CDT

Registration

Alicia von Schenk will be presenting the results of some recent work she has done on how people view the earnings of algorithms. Using experiments varying the information on the use of money earned by a machine, this research helps reveal people's unconscious mapping of automated agents to humans and provide insight into the future of an increasingly automated economy.

Abstract

Humans increasingly interact with automated agents that pervade economic and social life. Whether algorithms act according to predetermined if-then rules or autonomously learn how to behave toward humans, introducing machines in strategic interactions raises one crucial question: How to deal with machine earnings? By giving participants different information on the use of money earned by a machine, experimental studies might vary people's unconscious mapping of automated agents to humans. Our study aims to systematically identify the causal effect of changing this perceived distance between humans and machines on social behavior. In an online experiment, we consider three types of repeated, binary decision situations and estimate revealed social preference parameters (inequality aversion, positive and negative reciprocity) for varying strategic counterparts and varying implementation of and information about the machine payoff.

Speaker Bio

Alicia von Schenk is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Humans and Machines of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. She received her PhD in economics from Goethe University Frankfurt in May 2021. Her thesis on “Organizational Behavior and Economic and Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence” addresses inefficiencies in human decision-making and takes a microeconomic perspective on the potential of new technologies for satisfactory work environments. Before joining the PhD program at the Graduate School for Economics, Finance, and Management at Goethe University Frankfurt, she completed her BSc and MSc in Mathematics and her BSc and MSc in (Quantitative) Economics. Alicia's main research interests are the economic and ethical aspects of AI, and organizational and behavioral economics.