Joshua Rottman

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Joshua Rottman is a developmental psychologist whose research explores the origins of moral cognition, social learning, and how humans reason about agency and choice. His work bridges cognitive development, moral psychology, and human-robot interaction, investigating how children and adults attribute mental states—like the capacity to choose—to both human and non-human agents. In his highly cited study "Constrained Choice: Children's and Adults’ Attribution of Choice to a Humanoid Robot" (2021, 14 citations), Rottman demonstrated that even young children recognize that human agents can flexibly choose actions across contexts, yet they often extend this reasoning to robots, revealing foundational insights into social-cognitive development. His provocative piece "When does 'no' mean no? Insights from sex robots" (2023, 8 citations) applies moral psychological frameworks to emerging technologies, examining consent and autonomy in human-robot interactions. Rottman’s work has significant implications for understanding moral development, artificial intelligence ethics, and how humans navigate relationships with increasingly autonomous machines. His research continues to shape debates in developmental psychology and technology ethics, offering critical perspectives on how we learn to judge agency and moral responsibility.