Publication Details

Zachary Carlson, Louise Lemmon, MacCallister Higgins, David Frank, Roya Salek Shahrezaie, and David Feil-Seifer. "Perceived mistreatment and emotional capability following aggressive treatment of robots and computers." In International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR), 11(5):727-739, Oct 2019. doi: 10.1007/s12369-019-00599-8 ( pdf )


  • Keywords:
  • JHRI
  • SARG

Abstract

Robots (and computers) are increasingly being used in scenarios where they interact socially with people. How people react to these agents is telling about the perceived empathy of such agents. Mistreatment of robots (or computers) by co-workers might provoke such telling reactions. This study examines perceived mistreatment directed towards a robot in comparison to a computer. This will provide some understanding of how people feel about robots in collaborative social settings.

We conducted a two by two between-subjects study with 80 participants. Participants worked cooperatively with either a robot or a computer agent. An experiment confederate would either act aggressively or neutrally towards the agent. We hypothesized that people would not perceive aggressive speech as mistreatment when an agent was capable of emotional feelings and similar to themselves; that participants would perceive the robot as more similar in appearance and emotionally capable to themselves than a computer; and so would observe more mistreatment with a robot. The final results supported our hypotheses; the participants observed greater mistreatment for the robot, but not the computer. Also participants felt significantly more sympathetic towards the robot and believed that it was much more emotionally capable.

Author Details

Name: Zachary Carlson
Status: Active

Name: Louise Lemmon
Status: Active

Name: MacCallister Higgins
Status: Inactive

Name: David Frank
email: davidfrank@nevada.unr.edu
Phone: (775) 527-4044
Status: Active

Name: Roya Salek Shahrezaie
email: rsalek@nevada.unr.edu
Status: Active

Name: David Feil-Seifer
email: dave@cse.unr.edu
Website: http://cse.unr.edu/~dave
Phone: (775) 784-6469
Status: Active

BibTex Reference

@article{carlson2019perceived,
  title={Perceived mistreatment and emotional capability following aggressive treatment of robots and computers},
  author={Zachary Carlson and Louise Lemmon and MacCallister Higgins and David Frank and Roya Salek Shahrezaie and David Feil-Seifer},
  year={2019},
  month={October},
  url={https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00599-8},
  journal={International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR)},
  volume={11},
  number={5},
  pages={727-739},
  doi={10.1007/s12369-019-00599-8},
}

HTML Reference

<span class="authors">Zachary Carlson, Louise Lemmon, MacCallister Higgins, David Frank, Roya Salek Shahrezaie, and David Feil-Seifer</span>. <span class="title">"Perceived mistreatment and emotional capability following aggressive treatment of robots and computers." </span> <span class="status">In</span> <span class="booktitle">International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR), </span><span class="volume">11</span><span class="number">(5)</span>:<span class="pg">727-739</span>, <span class="month">Oct</span> <span class="year">2019</span>. <span class="ending"></span> <span class="doi">doi: 10.1007/s12369-019-00599-8</span>

Support

CHS: Small: Socially-Aware Navigation, National Science Foundation PI: David Feil-Seifer, co-PI: Monica Nicolescu, Amount: $500,000, Sept. 1, 2017 - May 31, 2022