Artificial intelligence, distributional fairness, and pivotality

Victor Klockmann, Alicia von Schenk and Marie Claire Villeval

European Economic Review, 2025, vol. 178, issue C

Abstract: In the field of machine learning, the decisions of algorithms depend on extensive training data contributed by numerous, often human, sources. How does this property affect the social nature of human decisions that serve to train these algorithms? By experimentally manipulating the pivotality of individual decisions for a supervised machine learning algorithm, we show that the diffusion of responsibility weakened revealed social preferences, leading to algorithmic models favoring selfish decisions. Importantly, this phenomenon cannot be attributed to shifts in incentive structures or the presence of externalities. Rather, our results suggest that the expansive nature of Big Data fosters a sense of diminished responsibility and serves as an excuse for selfish behavior that impacts individuals and the whole society.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Big data; Pivotality; Distributional fairness; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D10 D63 D90 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:178:y:2025:i:c:s0014292125001485

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105098

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