‘I’d rather be replaced by a robot than another person’

Being replaced by a robot in the workplace would be less devastating for employees than if their jobs were taken over by other humans.

In the age of automation, an international study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, delved into how workers react to the possibility of being replaced through technology.

“Over the coming decades, millions of jobs will be threatened by robotics and artificial intelligence.

“Despite intense academic debate on these developments, there has been little study of how workers react to being replaced through technology,” the researchers said.

They conducted 11 scenario studies and surveys with more than 2,000 people from several countries in Europe and North America.

The study showed that, in principle, most people view it more favourably when workers are replaced by other people than by robots and intelligent software.

“This preference reverses, however, when it refers to people’s own jobs.

“When that is the case, the majority of workers find it less upsetting to see their own jobs go to robots than to other employees,” the research said.

“In the long term, however, the same people see machines as more threatening to their future role in the workforce.”

Researchers attributed the paradoxical results to people comparing themselves less with machines than with other people.

“Consequently, being replaced by a robot or software poses less of a threat to their feeling of self-worth.”

Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report – following a survey of 10,000 respondents in 119 countries, including SA – looked at how automation is expected to affect major global companies.

In SA, more than half of the respondents were exploring automation and 58% said they were using automation to replace repetitive work.

Psychologist Rakhi Beekrum said the general thought of being replaced by robots might create anxiety, but this was seen as less threatening than personally being replaced by another human being.

“As humans, we can only compete with humans, so it is seen as a more rational comparison than comparing oneself with a robot or AI,” she said. –