2025/08/18 by Navya N. Sharan, Jochen Peter, Caroline L. van Straten · 1 voice
Psychology · Computer Science · #Social Robot Interaction and HRI #AI in Service Interactions #Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/10447318.2025.2537780
openalex publication_date 2025/08/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
A recent extension of the Computers-Are-Social-Actors (CASA) paradigm, known as the Media-Are-Social-Actors (MASA) paradigm, suggests that social cues displayed by media agents may elicit social responses from the observer. In a partial conceptual replication of an original CASA study with an additional MASA variable, we conducted a 2 (robot helpfulness: high vs. low) × 2 (presence of face: present vs absent) between-subjects experiment with 260 participants (aged 18–63, female = 214, male = 45). Neither robot helpfulness nor presence of face affected people’s reciprocal helping behavior toward the robot. Thus, our study did not support the original CASA findings. Our results underscore the need to study social cues individually and explore the purpose of these cues in (functional) human-robot relationships.