What robots can teach us about intimacy: The reassuring effects of robot responsiveness to human disclosure

Gurit E. Birnbaum  * , Moran Mizrahi , Guy Hoffman , Harry T. Reis  , Eli J. Finkel , Omri Sass 

Abstract: Perceiving another person as responsive to one’s needs is inherent to the formation of attachment bonds and is the foundation for safe-haven and secure-base processes. Two studies examined whether such processes also apply to interactions with robots. In both studies, participants had one-at-a-time sessions, in which they disclosed a personal event to a non-humanoid robot that responded either responsively or unresponsively across two modalities (gestures, text). Study 1 showed that a robot’s responsiveness increased perceptions of its appealing traits, approach behaviors towards the robot, and the willingness to use it as a companion in stressful situations. Study 2 found that in addition to producing similar reactions in a different context, interacting with a responsive robot improved self-perceptions during a subsequent stress-generating task. These findings suggest that humans not only utilize responsiveness cues to ascribe social intentions to robots, but can actually use them as a source of consolation and security.

Keywords: Attachment, Human-robot interaction, Intimacy, Responsiveness, Socially assistive robotics, Robotic companionship

机器人能教会我们什么是亲密关系： 机器人对人类披露信息的回应所产生的安抚效果

Gurit E. Birnbaum * , Moran Mizrahi , Guy Hoffman , Harry T. Reis , Eli J. Finkel , Omri Sass 

摘要：认为另一个人对自己的需求有反应是形成依恋关系的固有因素，也是安全港和安全基地过程的基础。有两项研究探讨了这种过程是否也适用于与机器人的互动。在这两项研究中，参与者都进行了一次性对话，向非人类机器人披露个人事件，而机器人会通过两种方式（手势、文字）做出回应或不回应。研究 1 表明，机器人的反应能力会提高人们对其吸引力特征的感知、对机器人的接近行为，以及在压力情况下将其作为伴侣的意愿。研究 2 发现，除了在不同情境下产生类似的反应外，与反应灵敏的机器人互动还能在随后的压力任务中改善自我感知。这些研究结果表明，人类不仅可以利用响应性线索将社会意图归因于机器人，还可以将其作为安慰和安全感的来源。

关键词：依恋，人机交互，亲密性，响应性，社会辅助机器人，机器人陪伴

来源：Computers in Human Behavior,2016