Shall I trust you? From child human-robot interaction to trusting relationships

Abstract

Studying trust within human-robot interaction is of great importance given the social relevance of robotic agents in a variety of contexts. We investigated the acquisition, loss and restoration of trust when preschool and school-age children played with either a human or a humanoid robot in-vivo. The relationship between trust and the quality of attachment relationships, Theory of Mind, and executive function skills was also investigated. No differences were found in children’s trust in the play-partner as a function of agency (human or robot). Nevertheless, 3-years-olds showed a trend toward trusting the human more than the robot, while 7-years-olds displayed the reverse behavioral pattern, thus highlighting the developing interplay between affective and cognitive correlates of trust.

A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots

“…A recent review of the literature by Marchetti et al (2018) showed that different physical characteristics of HSRs may significantly affect the quality of interaction between humans and robots at different ages. The construction of robots that integrate and expand the specific biological abilities of our species led to two different directions in robotic development based on different, though related, theoretical perspectives: developmental cybernetics (DC; Itakura, 2008 ; Itakura et al, 2008 ; Moriguchi et al, 2011 ; Kannegiesser et al, 2015 ; Okanda et al, 2018 ; Di Dio et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Manzi et al, 2020a ) and developmental robotics (DR; De La Cruz et al, 2014 ; Cangelosi and Schlesinger, 2015 , 2018 ; Lyon et al, 2016 ; Morse and Cangelosi, 2017 ; Vinanzi et al, 2019 ; Zhong et al, 2019 ; Di Dio et al, 2020a , b ). The first perspective (DC) consists of creating a human-like system, by simulating human psychological processes and prosthetic functions in the robot (enhancing the function and lifestyle of persons) to observe people’s behavioral response toward the robot.…”

“…More recent studies have further shown that already from three years of age, children fairly differentiate a human from a robot in terms of mental abilities ( Di Dio et al, 2020a ), although younger children appear to be more inclined to anthropomorphize robots compared to older children. This effect may be due to the phenomenon of animism, particularly active at three years of age ( Di Dio et al, 2020a , b ).…”

“…Differences in the attribution of mental qualities to the two robots were then explored using the robots’ degree of physical anthropomorphism and the child’s chronological age. The two humanoid robots, NAO and Robovie, have been selected for two main reasons: (1) in relation to their physical appearance, both robots belong to the category of HSRs, but differ for their degree of anthropomorphism (for a detailed description of the robots, see section “Materials”); (2) both robots are largely used in experiments with children ( Kanda et al, 2002 ; Kose and Yorganci, 2011 ; Kahn et al, 2012 ; Shamsuddin et al, 2012 ; Okumura et al, 2013a , b ; Tielman et al, 2014 ; Cangelosi and Schlesinger, 2015 , 2018 ; Hood et al, 2015 ; Di Dio et al, 2020a , b ).…”

Robotics in Clinical and Developmental Psychology

“…It is of course important to know whether these new technological tools, in their various forms, are welcomed by the potential users, both in the clinical and in an at-home setting. To interact with someone, or something, from early in life we need to trust in the relationship ( Di Dio et al., 2020a , Di Dio et al., 2020b ) and in the efficacy of the help that the other, person or thing, can provide us. Our health is everything after all and we want to put it in good hands.…”

The Psychosocial Fuzziness of Fear in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Era and the Role of Robots

“…The individual undertakes a path in which the “known social other”/“unknown social other” dichotomy acts as an organizer of beliefs and attitudes, thus contributing to the construction of the Self as a distinct and separate entity from the Other. From a sensorineural point of view, the human baby is equipped to recognize and trustfully orient herself/himself toward primary figures of care and protection; it is precisely on this basis that trust is built in others and ourselves (Di Dio et al, 2019 , 2020a , b ; Manzi et al, 2020a , b ). The so-called “anguish of the stranger” (Spitz, 1945 ; Schaffer, 1966 ) emerges around 8 months of age.…”