Can Vicarious Agents follow the Intent of Clients’ Orders in Making Risk Judgments?

Vicarious decisions are made on behalf of others that are not for the decision-makers themselves, but for the satisfaction of the others. They are often observed in interactive situations in the real-world, such as investment trusts in an outsourced agency (planners) and its clients (sponsors). We challenged the question of whether planners really could follow the intent of sponsors’ orders in making vicarious risk decisions. We designed and conducted an online experiment in which pairs of persons interacted with each other in the role of either sponsor or planner. Our results showed that planners adjusted the number of gambling or risky choices according to the sponsor’s orders, but did not take actions that reflected the sponsor’s risk preferences; nonetheless, sponsor’s satisfaction to the planner’s choice was substantially high. These findings shed light on the interaction design of how deeply vicarious agents (whether human or robot) should follow the client’s thoughts in collaborative tasks.