Effects of Assistive Robot Behavior on Impressions of Patient Psychological Attributes: Vignette-Based Human-Robot Interaction Study

Abstract

Background As robots are increasingly designed for health management applications, it is critical to not only consider the effects robots will have on patients but also consider a patient’s wider social network, including the patient’s caregivers and health care providers, among others. Objective In this paper we investigated how people evaluate robots that provide care and how they form impressions of the patient the robot cares for, based on how the robot represents the patient. Methods We have used a vignette-based study, showing participants hypothetical scenarios describing behaviors of assistive robots (patient-centered or task-centered) and measured their influence on people’s evaluations of the robot itself (emotional intelligence [EI], trustworthiness, and acceptability) as well as people’s perceptions of the patient for whom the robot provides care. Results We found that for scenarios describing a robot that acts in a patient-centered manner, the robot will not only be perceived as having higher EI (P=.003) but will also cause people to form more positive impressions of the patient that the robot cares for (P<.001). We replicated and expanded these results to other domains such as dieting, learning, and job training. Conclusions These results imply that robots could be used to enhance human-human relationships in the health care context and beyond.

A transdisciplinary review and framework of consumer interactions with embodied social robots: Design, delegate, and deploy

“…Another example in a healthcare context shows that a robot's patient‐centered (versus. task‐centered) behavior also positively affects perceived emotional intelligence (Chita‐Tegmark et al., 2019). Moreover, when robot behaviors signal personalization, the provision of service to consumers is more successful.…”

“…Another example in a healthcare context shows that a robot's patient-centered (versus. task-centered) behavior also positively affects perceived emotional intelligence (Chita-Tegmark et al, 2019).…”

“…Meanwhile, empirical research on human–robot interactions (HRI), in which humans and robots coordinate their actions face to face in real time and in a shared environment (Dautenhahn, 2007), has been widely conducted in other scientific disciplines. For instance, it is well represented in fields such as robotics (e.g., Torta et al., 2014), medicine (e.g., Chita‐Tegmark et al., 2019), information systems (e.g., Mettler et al., 2017), and psychology (e.g., Gallimore et al., 2019). The respective empirical findings amount to a wealth of knowledge on various social robot types interacting with consumers in different service contexts, studied with diverse scientific methods.…”

The Perceptions of People with Dementia and Key Stakeholders Regarding the Use and Impact of the Social Robot MARIO

“…Social robots have been found to have positive effects by reducing negative emotions and behavioural symptoms, improving social engagement, and promoting positive mood and quality of care experience [ 51 ]. Additionally, patients who use social robots in a patient-centred manner are perceived as having higher emotional intelligence themselves and can affect caregivers to form more positive impressions of the person that the robot cares for [ 52 ]. These findings demonstrate that social robots also have the potential to enhance human-human relationships in the healthcare context.…”

Assistive Robots for the Social Management of Health: A Framework for Robot Design and Human–Robot Interaction Research

“…Although there is much opportunity for exploring ways in which robots could accentuate ones positive and empathy-inviting features and behaviors, to our knowledge only one HRI study has investigated how a robot can change peoples perceptions of a person with a health condition. Chita-Tegmark, Akerman, and Scheutz [41] conducted a vignette study in which robots partook in a conversation between a patient and a health-care provider: the robot gave a summary of the patients treatment progress. In doing so, the robot used either task-centered language, emphasizing the patients level of compliance to the treatment plan, or patient-centered language emphasizing the patients choices and difficulties with regards to the treatment plan.…”