Robots and humans can work together as a team, but this brings both good and bad for teamwork. Sometimes, people depend too much on their teammates, whether they are humans or robots. A recent study shows that working with robots can make people's motivation (动力) and effort go down.
In the study, the researchers created a pretend task where two groups of participants had to check circuit boards (电路板) for mistakes. The first group were told that a robot named Panda had already checked the circuit boards before they checked. They could see and hear the robot when they worked.
At first, it seemed like Panda's presence didn't make a difference. Both groups spent the same amount of time checking the boards and found a similar number of mistakes. However, when the researchers looked more closely at the mistakes, they noticed that the first group found fewer mistakes later on. This could mean that they depended too much on the robot and didn't pay as much attention. They believed that Panda wouldn't miss any mistakes.
The researchers warned that this could be a safety problem. In their study, they found that participants found out fewer mistakes when they worked with the robot. In longer work shifts, especially when tasks are repetitive (重复乏味的) and there isn't much supervision (监管), the loss of motivation could be even worse. This could bring dangerous results to work, especially in jobs where double-checking is important for safety.
To understand the problem better, the researchers suggested doing studies in real workplaces with skilled workers who often work with robots. This would give us a clearer picture of how motivation is changed in real-life situations.
