Not my responsibility: The framing of autonomous systems impacts sustainable choices

Autonomous systems, such as autonomous lawnmowers, cars, and drones, are known to reduce users’ sense of responsibility towards the tasks these systems carry out. However, no research to date has examined whether a reduced sense of responsibility may affect the sustainable choices users make when presented with such systems. We seek to investigate whether the framing of autonomous systems, meaning how the key characteristics of such systems are communicated to the user, can affect the user’s sense of responsibility and in turn their sustainable product choices. Across three studies, we show that when autonomous systems are presented with an "autonomy frame”, emphasizing their ability to handle tasks on the user’s behalf, users feel a diminished sense of responsibility for the system’s environmental impact. Crucially, we see that such a reduction in responsibility leads to a preference for less sustainable versions of the system (Studies 1 & 2). Instead, when employing an "energy efficiency frame”, highlighting the system’s ability to optimally manage energy consumption, users still feel a reduced sense of responsibility and yet they make more sustainable product choices, due to the activation of a prosocial focus (Study 3). This mechanism behind the energy efficiency frame’s success offers a solution to counteract the negative effects observed when autonomous systems are given an autonomy frame.