The implementation of anthropomorphic features in regard to appearance and framing is widely supposed to increase empathy towards robots. However, recent research used mainly tasks that are rather atypical for daily human-robot interactions like sacrificing or destroying robots. The scope of the current study was to investigate the influence of anthropomorphism by design on empathy and empathic behavior in a more realistic, collaborative scenario. In this online experiment, participants collaborated either with an anthropomorphic or a technical looking robot and received either an anthropomorphic or a technical description of the respective robot. After the task completion, we investigated situational empathy by displaying a choice-scenario in which participants needed to decide whether they wanted to act empathically towards the robot (sign a petition or a guestbook for the robot) or non empathically (leave the experiment). Subsequently, the perception of and empathy towards the robot was assessed. The results revealed no significant influence of anthropomorphism on empathy and participants' empathic behavior. However, an exploratory follow-up analysis indicates that the individual tendency to anthropomorphize might be crucial for empathy. This result strongly supports the importance to consider individual difference in human-robot interaction. Based on the exploratory analysis, we propose six items to be further investigated as empathy questionnaire in HRI.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1149601 | DOI Listing |
Ergonomics
January 2025
Human Factors Research Group, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
In a novel, on-road study, using a 'Ghost Driver' to emulate an automated vehicle (AV), we captured over 10 hours of video (n = 520) and 64 survey responses documenting the behaviour and attitudes of pedestrians in response to the AV. Three prototype external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) described the AV's behaviour, awareness and intention using elements of anthropomorphism: High (human face), Low (car motif), Abstract (partial representation of human features that lacked precise visual reference); these were evaluated against a (no eHMI) baseline. Despite many pedestrians reporting that they still relied on vehicular cues to negotiate their crossing, there was a desire/expectation expressed for explicit communication with future AVs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNPJ Sci Learn
January 2025
Department of Educational Sciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
Rising interest in artificial intelligence in education reinforces the demand for evidence-based implementation. This study investigates how tutor agents' physical embodiment and anthropomorphism (student-reported sociability, animacy, agency, and disturbance) relate to affective (on-task enjoyment) and cognitive (task performance) learning within an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). Data from 56 students (M = 17.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Soc Psychol
January 2025
Sentience Institute, New York City, New York, USA.
The ways people imagine possible futures with artificial intelligence (AI) affects future world-making-how the future is produced through cultural propagation, design, engineering, policy, and social interaction-yet there has been little empirical study of everyday people's expectations for AI futures. We addressed this by analysing two waves (2021 and 2023) of USA nationally representative data from the Artificial Intelligence, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) survey on the public's forecasts about an imagined future world with widespread AI sentience (total N = 2401). Average responses to six forecasts (exploiting AI labour, treating AI cruelly, using AI research subjects, AI welfare, AI rights advocacy, AI unhappiness reduction) showed mixed expectations for humanity's future with AI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppetite
February 2025
Department of Marketing, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia; School of Languages and Tourism, Hanoi University of Industry, Viet Nam. Electronic address:
Across two experimental studies, we examine the role of psychological ownership of the Earth and it's anthropomorphosis on hybrid meat purchase intentions as the result of proximal and distal message framing. Study 1 revealed that proximal (vs. distal) message framing (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
November 2024
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, AG Neuronale Plastizität, Gebäude W37, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
Anthropomorphism describes the tendency to endow objects with human characteristics, with some individuals being more inclined to do this than others. In an ambiguous environment, this phenomenon can offer guidance. This study investigates the relationship between self-reported attribution and evoked anthropomorphism when viewing house facades.
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