2023/09/06 by Cristina Gena, Gena, Cristina, Francesca Manini +7 · 1 voice
Computer Science · Neuroscience · Psychology · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Robotics (cs.RO) #Social Robot Interaction and HRI #cs.HC #cs.RO
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2309.02897
openalex publication_date 2023/09/06 · arxiv published 2023/09/06 · arxiv updated 2023/09/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper presents an experimental study showing that the humanoid robot NAO, in a condition already validated with regards to its capacity to trigger situational empathy in humans, is able to stimulate the attribution of mental states towards itself. Indeed, results show that participants not only experienced empathy towards NAO, when the robot was afraid of losing its memory due to a malfunction, but they also attributed higher scores to the robot emotional intelligence in the Attribution of Mental State Questionnaire, in comparison with the users in the control condition. This result suggests a possible correlation between empathy toward the robot and humans' attribution of mental states to it.