  The transfer of tasks with sometimes far-reaching moral implications to
autonomous systems raises a number of ethical questions. In addition to
fundamental questions about the moral agency of these systems, behavioral
issues arise. This article focuses on the responsibility of agents who decide
on our behalf. We investigate the empirically accessible question of whether
the production of moral outcomes by an agent is systematically judged
differently when the agent is artificial and not human. The results of a
laboratory experiment suggest that decision-makers can actually rid themselves
of guilt more easily by delegating to machines than by delegating to other
people. Our results imply that the availability of artificial agents could
provide stronger incentives for decision makers to delegate morally sensitive
decisions.
