Human beings are social by nature and tend to surround themselves with other people and animals whom they can share their lives with. Giving and receiving care and affection is a way to create stronger bonds for the human beings. Pets are also often considered part of the family.

However, would that affection and offer of protection extend to a robot? Especially when faced with the welfare of another human being? That’s the purpose of the research study being conducted at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

 Sari Nijssen said that the study set out to answer the following question: “Under what circumstances and to what extent would adults be willing to sacrifice robots to save human lives?” It was all about posing a moral dilemma for the participants. What would they choose to save given what they knew about the human and the robot.

The scientific study was seen to show that when the robot was humanoid and depicted as being compassionate and having perceptions of it’s own, people were much more likely to chose to save it. More so when they didn’t know the human beings and were familiar with the robot.