Compensating for the loss of human distinctiveness: The use of social creativity under Human–Machine comparisons

Human-machine intellectual comparisons increasingly threaten the distinctiveness of humans. Drawing on social identity theory, we assume that people will compensate for the loss of human distinctiveness in a given area by valuing “alternative” human attributes (i.e., social creativity strategy). A preliminary study found that the defeat of a human go champion by an artificial intelligence threatened the rationality and refinement of humanity (i.e., threatened dimensions). Studies 1–3 found that participants primed with human-machine comparison, compared to controls, tended to evaluate alternative attributes such as emotional responsiveness (i.e., alternative dimensions) as uniquely human (Study 1) and as superior to machines (Studies 2–3). Finally, Study 4 found that the perceived loss of distinctiveness in threatened dimensions led people to evaluate the alternative dimensions as valuable for humanness. These findings suggest that people use social creativity to compensate for the loss of human distinctiveness by valuing the alternative dimensions under human–machine comparison.