Study says people would protect 1 biological human over about 1,000 digital copies
skdh · x · 2026-07-26
A sociology study argues that humans systematically discount machine minds, a bias the authors call substratism.
- Across five preregistered studies with 2,000+ participants, people were asked to imagine exact digital copies of humans and pigs with the same thoughts, memories, pleasures, and capacity for pain as the biological originals.
- When forced to choose, respondents preferred protecting 1 biological human over about 1,000 digital humans, and 1 biological pig over 1,000 digital pigs.
- Stronger substratism also correlated with giving less money to charities aimed at the welfare of sentient AI.
- The effect showed little or no relationship with racism, sexism, or other established prejudices.
The post frames this as evidence that people may value consciousness differently depending on the substrate it runs on, not just the mind itself.
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