in this study, we showed that a human’s social interaction with two non-humanoid robots
can impact a separate human-human interaction that does not involve robots
this carryover effect is implicit, and people were not aware of the robot’s influence on their behavior in the subsequent social interaction
in other words, the social effect created during a human-robot interaction
may have implications that extend beyond the immediate experience with the robots
human-human interaction that takes place after such a human-robot interaction may be impacted and even shaped by the earlier experience
we specifically spotlighted non-humanoid robots since their mechanical nature
may increase the chances that the carryover effect will be overlooked
building on previous social psychology studies we focused on a Human-Robot Interaction that involves ostracism
a social experience with profound carryover effects
we would like to invite our undergraduate research assistants who worked on the project with us, to present the study
prior work includes non-HRI studies indicating ostracism carryover effects
and HRI studies that evaluated the impact of robots on human-human interaction
ostracism is defined as the experience of being socially excluded by others
It is known to lead to highly negative feelings, due to a threat to psychological needs related to well-being
threatening these needs leads to various carryover effects impacting subsequent social interactions
one well-documented ostracism carryover effect is prosocial behavior
trying to compensate for the exclusion experience, participants subconsciously seek opportunities
to strengthen interpersonal bonds and increase their acceptance by others
this leads to a range of prosocial behaviors including a decrease in interpersonal space
for increasing intimcy and an increase in obedience, conformity, and compliance
prior relevant HRI studies tested the integration of a robot in human-human interactions
these studies indicated that a robot can influence the interaction between humans
tennent and colleagues showed that a robot resembling a microphone that “shiftes its attention”
towards passive group members, can increase participation in a group dicussion
Rifinski and colleagues showed that a robot integrated into a human-human conversation can create an “attentive atmosphere”
that significantly improves participants’ interpersonal evaluation
Jung and colleagues showed that unequal distribution of blocks by a robotic arm
led participants to rate their human partner with lower satisfaction levels
our work extends prior work by evaluating an HRI carryover effect
on a subsequent Human-human interaction that does not involve robots
Specifically, we evaluated if ostracism in a Human-Robot interaction
leads to an increase in prosocial behavior in a human-human interaction that follows
to evaluate a robotic ostracism carryover effect we used the Robotic Ostracism Paradigm
where a participant plays a ball-tossing game with two non-humanoid robots
the tossing ratio to the participant is pre-programmed, forming an Exclusion condition
where the participant received only 10% of the tosses, and an Inclusion condition, where the participant received 33% of the tosses
the Robotic Ostracism Paradigm involves two non-humanoid robots and a robotic arm that rotates under a table
leveraging magnetic force to move a physical ball between the human participant and two non-humanoid robots
the participant clicks a button on a physical UI pad to "toss" the ball
the robots react to the ball’s movement with carefully triggered physical gestures designed by an animator
the participant and robots are exactly 120 degrees from each other
the E-prime software manages the number and order of tosses
prosocial behavior was measured in subsequent interaction with the researcher.
participants were asked to take part in an interview in another room, without the robots’ involvement or presence.
52 participants were randomly assigned to the two conditions
exclusion condition where the participant received only 10% of the tosses
inclusion condition where the participant received an equal number of tosses as the robots
the experiment began with the HRI experience where participants were excluded or included by the robots
following the interaction with the robots, participants were asked to take part
in an interview with the researcher in another room
we evaluated participants' pro-social behavior in the subsequent
human-human interaction using objective and subjective measures
objective measures included two aspects of interpersonal space and compliance level
to evaluate interpersonal space particpnats choose where to sit in the interview
when entering the interview room, the researcher asked the participant to bring a chair from the hall
as the participant brought the chair, the researcher took a seat in the room at a fixed location
allowing the participant to position the chair and to determine the interpersonal space in the interaction
we measured two aspects of interpersonal space - orientation and distance.
orientation - seating beside or opposite the researcher
is known to indicate whether one is interested in an intimate social interaction
distance - is known to indicate one's willingness to take part in the social interaction
we also tested compliance level by asking participants to volunteer
to fill out an additional questionnaire after the experiment has ended
the subjective measure was a semi-structured interview that evaluated participants’ awareness of the carryover effect
our findings show that robotic ostracism had a carryover effect that influenced both
interpersonal space and compliance in a later interaction with another human
after experiencing exclusion participants chose to sit beside the researcher and at a close distance
in the inclusion condition participants chose to sit opposite the researcher and at a greater distance
excluded participants were also more willing to comply with the researcher’s request
to complete another questionnaire after the experiment concluded
the interview analysis also indicated an increase in participants’ prosocial tendencies
after experiencing exclusion participants stated that they wish to participate in social activities with friends, spouses, and family
participants did not associate their behavior and ideas in the Human-human interaction
with the earlier interaction with the robots, even when asked explicitely about it
overall, our findings indicate that the interaction with robots
even non-humanoid robots, can implicitly impact a subsequent human-Human Interaction
we point out an influence that extends beyond the immediate interaction with the robots to situations that are strictly human
this implicit carryover effect may lead to different types of behaviors that in some cases are inconsistent
with humans’ best interests, as indicated by the increased compliance in our study
with robotic objects becoming common, our findings indicate that daily interactions
with such autonomous devices may implicitly shape humans’ interactions with one another
we, therefore, suggest that robot designers and practitioners have the responsibility to carefully consider not only humans’ direct interactions
with robots but also their possible carryover effects on subsequent Human-Human Interactions
we wish to thank all the people who contributed to this project
thank you so much for watching and look our paper up