Asch Meets HRI: Human Conformity to Robot Groups

We present a research outline that aims at investigating group dynamics and peer pressure in the context of industrial robots. Our research plan was motivated by the fact that industrial robots became already an integral part of human-robot co-working. However, industrial robots have been sparsely integrated into research on robot credibility, group dynamics, and potential users' tendency to follow a robot's indication. Therefore, we aim to transfer the classic Asch experiment (see \cite{Asch_51}) into HRI with industrial robots. More precisely, we will test to what extent participants follow a robot's response when confronted with a group (vs. individual) industrial robot arms (vs. human) peers who give a false response. We are interested in highlighting the effects of group size, perceived robot credibility, psychological stress, and peer pressure in the context of industrial robots. With the results of this research, we hope to highlight group dynamics that might underlie HRI in industrial settings in which numerous robots already work closely together with humans in shared environments.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Perceiving Sociable Technology: Exploring the Role of Anthropomorphism and Agency Perception on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

With the arrival of personal assistants and other AI-enabled autonomous technologies, social interactions with smart devices have become a part of our daily lives. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these social interactions emerge, and why users appear to be influenced by them. For this reason, I explore questions on what the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon, known as anthropomorphism, are as described in the extant literature from fields ranging from information systems to social neuroscience. I critically analyze those empirical studies directly measuring anthropomorphism and those referring to it without a corresponding measurement. Through a grounded theory approach, I identify common themes and use them to develop models for the antecedents and consequences of anthropomorphism. The results suggest anthropomorphism possesses both conscious and non-conscious components with varying implications. While conscious attributions are shown to vary based on individual differences, non-conscious attributions emerge whenever a technology exhibits apparent reasoning such as through non-verbal behavior like peer-to-peer mirroring or verbal paralinguistic and backchanneling cues. Anthropomorphism has been shown to affect users’ self-perceptions, perceptions of the technology, how users interact with the technology, and the users’ performance. Examples include changes in a users’ trust on the technology, conformity effects, bonding, and displays of empathy. I argue these effects emerge from changes in users’ perceived agency, and their self- and social- identity similarly to interactions between humans. Afterwards, I critically examine current theories on anthropomorphism and present propositions about its nature based on the results of the empirical literature. Subsequently, I introduce a two-factor model of anthropomorphism that proposes how an individual anthropomorphizes a technology is dependent on how the technology was initially perceived (top-down and rational or bottom-up and automatic), and whether it exhibits a capacity for agency or experience. I propose that where a technology lays along this spectrum determines how individuals relates to it, creating shared agency effects, or changing the users’ social identity. For this reason, anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to support future interactions with smart technologies

Modelling Adaptation through Social Allostasis: Modulating the Effects of Social Touch with Oxytocin in Embodied Agents

Social allostasis is a mechanism of adaptation that permits individuals to dynamically adapt their physiology to changing physical and social conditions. Oxytocin (OT) is widely considered to be one of the hormones that drives and adapts social behaviours. While its precise effects remain unclear, two areas where OT may promote adaptation are by affecting social salience, and affecting internal responses of performing social behaviours. Working towards a model of dynamic adaptation through social allostasis in simulated embodied agents, and extending our previous work studying OT-inspired modulation of social salience, we present a model and experiments that investigate the effects and adaptive value of allostatic processes based on hormonal (OT) modulation of affective elements of a social behaviour. In particular, we investigate and test the effects and adaptive value of modulating the degree of satisfaction of tactile contact in a social motivation context in a small simulated agent society across different environmental challenges (related to availability of food) and effects of OT modulation of social salience as a motivational incentive. Our results show that the effects of these modulatory mechanisms have different (positive or negative) adaptive value across different groups and under different environmental circumstance in a way that supports the context-dependent nature of OT, put forward by the interactionist approach to OT modulation in biological agents. In terms of simulation models, this means that OT modulation of the mechanisms that we have described should be context-dependent in order to maximise viability of our socially adaptive agents, illustrating the relevance of social allostasis mechanisms.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Human-Robot Interaction: Mapping Literature Review and Network Analysis

Organizations increasingly adopt social robots as additions to real-life workforces, which requires knowledge of how humans react to and work with robots. The longstanding research on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) offers relevant insights, but the existing literature reviews are limited in their ability to guide theory development and practitioners in sustainably employing social robots because the reviews lack a systematic synthesis of HRI concepts, relationships, and ensuing effects. This study offers a mapping review of the past ten years of HRI research. With the analysis of 68 peer-reviewed journal articles, we identify shifting foci, for example, towards more application-specific empirical investigations, and the most prominent concepts and relationships investigated in connection with social robots, for example, robot appearance. The results offer Information Systems scholars and practitioners an initial knowledge base and nuanced insights into key predictors and outcome variables that can hinder and foster social robot adoption in the workplace