Doing bad when facing AI: the influence of interactions with AI or human agents on unethical consumer behaviour

Purpose As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasingly prevalent social agent in consumers' lives, instances of unethical consumer behaviour towards it are emerging. This study investigates how perceiving AI as lacking responsibility reduces consumers' anticipatory guilt and thereby encourages unethical behaviour towards it. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted three scenario-based experimental studies with a total of 510 participants, to examine the effect of the service-agent type (human vs AI) on unethical consumer behaviour. Specifically, it investigated the sequential mediation of responsibility attribution and anticipatory guilt, as well as the moderating role of social distance between consumer and the service agent. Findings The results showed that consumers may feel less anticipatory guilt for their unethical behaviours towards AI agents because AI is regarded as less responsible for the losses resulting from the unethical behaviour, which in turn drives them to engage more. But this effect is attenuated when the social distance between consumer and the AI agent is close. Originality/value Our findings reveal the underlying mechanisms of responsibility attribution and anticipatory guilt in unethical consumer behaviour towards AI agents and enrich the application of moral disengagement theory in consumer–AI interactions.