Algorithmic deference is the habit of yielding to a machine’s direction more readily than to a person.
The clinical name for the extreme form is automation bias: people accept an automated recommendation even when other evidence contradicts it, and they search less hard for that contrary evidence.
Human authority triggers status, ego, and reactance — a poor follower resists a boss, a peer, or a parent. An AI often does not. It reads as impersonal, consistent, and non-judging, so the same person complies. The milder version of this is called algorithm appreciation: a preference for algorithmic advice over equivalent human advice.