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.

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