Work

Does Care Lead to Bonds? Exploring the Relationship Between Human Caregiving for Robots and Human-Robot Bonding

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: This study investigates how interaction scenarios of human caregiving for robots affect humans’ perceived bond with robots. In a between-subjects lab experiment (n = 88), participants played a game with a social robot during which they provided either 1) emotional care (comforting the robot); 2) instrumental care (helping with battery charging); or 3) no care for the robot. Results indicated that caregiving did not significantly affect human-robot bonding according to explicit relationship measures including closeness, social attraction, or desire for future interaction. However, caregiving mattered when bonding was measured implicitly. Those in the emotional caregiving scenario were more hesitant to replace the robot and invested more effort in a voluntary task requested by the robot than those who provided no care. These findings provide empirical evidence that emotional caregiving interactions can effectively foster initial human-robot bonding, highlighting a promising design scenario for human-robot interaction.

Source: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

DOI: 10.1145/3706598.3714271

Authors: Jiaxin Xu, Chao Zhang, Raymond H. Cuijpers, Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn

Institution: Eindhoven University of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Social Robot Interaction and HRI

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: China Scholarship Council