2024/09/11 by Jesse Haapoja, Laura Savolainen, Hanna Reinikainen +1 · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Social Sciences · #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI #Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/14614448241278674
openalex publication_date 2024/09/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
This article examines how ‘pleasing the algorithm’, or engaging with algorithms to gain rewards such as visibility for one’s content on digital platforms, is treated from a moral perspective. Drawing from Harré’s work on moral orders, our qualitative analysis of Reddit messages focused on social media content creation illustrates how so-called folk theories of algorithms are used for moral evaluations about the responsibilities and worthiness of different actors. Moral judgements of the actions of content creators encompass ideas of individuals and their agency in relation to algorithmic systems, and these ideas influence the assessment of algorithm-pleasing as an integral part of the craft, as condemnable behaviour, or as a necessary evil. In this way, the feedback loops that arrange people and code into algorithmic systems inevitably make theories about those systems also theories about humans and their behaviour and agency.