Social Automatons: Using Simple Artificial Intelligence for Organizational Behavior Research Designs

Researchers in organizational behavior frequently rely on experiments using human confederates to study a range of phenomena. Although experiments with confederates allow for realism and rigor, the use of human confederates has several critical limitations. We present a novel and efficient alternative: the use of simple artificial intelligence (“simple AI”; i.e., responsive electronic confederates) for manipulating social behavior in group and...