Exploring perceptions of prosocial dog behaviors in a biomimetic robot
Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Abstract: Previously, we identified several behaviors dog owners perceive as important to building and maintaining prosocial bonds between people and their pet dogs. These included (but were not limited to) spontaneous displays of affection and responsiveness. An important next step toward developing and deploying robots as social companions is to now explore how these types of dog behaviors might be perceived when exhibited by a robot. In the present study, we collected videos of dogs exhibiting a selection of the desirable behaviors identified in our previous work, and recreated the clips using the MiRo-E, an animal-like biomimetic robot. We then carried out focus groups to explore people’s perceptions of the behaviors, and examine broader opinions of robotic animals and their potential uses among the general public. Through thematic analysis of datasets collected from 31 participants, we found a tendency for people to make comparisons to real companion animals, as well as a strong desire for features in a robot that resemble real animals – for example, fluid movements, animal-like sounds, and expressive eyes. Responses also suggest that purpose and context are important when judging the appropriateness of an animal-inspired robot, and that the general public have an awareness of ethical issues associated with robots for companionship (privacy, overdependence, and replacement of human/biological social contact). We discuss implications for the study of human—robot interaction, and for those developing social robots for companionship.
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4299818147