If you want people to think something deserves rights, give it eyes—we care way more about whether it can 'see' than if it's actually 'thinking.'
March 20, 2026
Original Paper
Behavioural Markers of Consciousness Shape Moral Status Judgments
PsyArXiv · usc83_v1
The Takeaway
We often assume that self-awareness is the highest form of consciousness and the primary reason we grant moral status to others. However, this study found that markers of basic visual awareness actually trigger stronger moral protections from the public than the complex ability to recognize oneself.
From the abstract
Whether an individual is conscious or not has important ethical and legal implications. For example, animal welfare regulations seek to minimize suffering in conscious animals, and AI ethics discussions focus on the possibility of artificial consciousness as a key concern. Critically, consciousness cannot be directly perceived, but must be inferred from external cues such as behaviour and biological makeup. It remains unknown how people form such inferences. In three experiments, 652 English-spe