Empathizing with robots: Fellow feeling along the anthropomorphic spectrum

Laurel D. Riek, Tal Chen Rabinowitch, Bhismadev Chakrabartiz, Peter Robinson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

A long-standing question within the robotics community is about the degree of human-likeness robots ought to have when interacting with humans. We explore an unexamined aspect of this problem: how people empathize with robots along the anthropomorphic spectrum. We conducted a webbased experiment (n = 120) that measured how people empathized with four different robots shown to be experiencing mistreatment by humans. Our results indicate that people empathize more strongly with more human-looking robots and less with mechanical looking robots. We also found that a person's general ability to empathize has no predictive value for expressed empathy toward robots.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, ACII 2009
Pages1-6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, ACII 2009 - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 10 Sep 200912 Sep 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, ACII 2009

Conference

Conference2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, ACII 2009
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityAmsterdam
Period10/09/0912/09/09

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Software

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