Stereotyping of Social Robots in Eldercare: An Explorative Analysis of Ethical Problems and Possible Solutions

Weßel, Merle; Ellerich-Groppe, Niklas; Schweda, Mark

doi:10.3233/faia200920

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This claim was firstly introduced and empirically confirmed in the human-computer interaction CASA approach studies [4,5]. In more recent years, the same has been found to generally apply to human-robot interactions too [6,7]. As such, it has grown to become a widely accepted notion in social robotics [8].…”

Section: Human-robot Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Social Robotics as Moral Education? Fighting Discrimination Through the Design of Social Robots

Fossa

2023

Social Robots in Social Institutions

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Recent research in the field of social robotics has shed light on the considerable role played by biases in the design of social robots. Cues that trigger widespread biased expectations are implemented in the design of social robots to increase their familiarity and boost interaction quality. Ethical discussion has focused on the question concerning the permissibility of leveraging social biases to meet the design goals of social robotics. As a result, integrating ethically problematic social biases in the design of robots–such as, e.g., discriminatory gender stereotypes–has been opposed as morally unacceptable. Building on this debate, the present paper explores a related but different question: would it be permissible to design social robots in ways that intentionally challenge widespread discriminatory social biases, thus fostering moral education? The analysis shows that, while the potential benefits of such a design strategy could be significant, its practical endorsement raises important ethical issues. Hence, caution and further discussion are advised.

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Section: Human-robot Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Social Robotics as Moral Education? Fighting Discrimination Through the Design of Social Robots

Fossa

2023

Social Robots in Social Institutions

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“…As the previous sections show, harnessing the power of bias in order to enhance the quality of human-machine interactions is a design strategy that raises an ethical question. Such question has been repeatedly asked in the literature, but rarely discussed in a systematic fashion (De Angeli & Brahnam, 2006;Weber & Bath, 2007;Eyssel & Hegel, 2012;Nomura, 2017;McDonnell & Baxter, 2019;Weßel et al, 2020;Weßel et al, 2021). We wish to fill this gap by exploring four different takes on the matter.…”

Section: Ethics Of Bias Alignmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Bias and Conversational Agents: an ethical perspective on Social Robotics

Fossa

Sucameli

2022

Sci Eng Ethics

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The increase in the spread of conversational agents urgently requires to tackle the ethical issues linked to their design. In fact, developers frequently include in their products cues that trigger social biases in order to maximize the performance and the quality of human-machine interactions. The present paper discusses whether and to what extent it is ethically sound to intentionally trigger gender biases through the design of virtually embodied conversational agents. After outlining the complex dynamics involving social biases, social robots, and design, we evaluate the ethics of integrating gender cues in conversational agents, analysing four different approaches to the problem. Finally, we suggest which approach in our opinion might have the best chances to reduce the negative effects of biases and discriminatory visions of gender dynamics.

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“…Independent of the different gender preferences, it should be considered whether they should be included in the robot design at all, or whether it should explicitly be omitted. Weßel and colleagues have analyzed ethical problems of gender stereotyping in social robotics and identified possible solutions [44]. Two of the solution strategies they mentioned were neutralization and queering.…”

Section: The Impact Of Justificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Robots Fail—A VR Investigation on Caregivers’ Tolerance towards Communication and Processing Failures

Klüber

Onnasch

2022

Robotics

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Robots are increasingly used in healthcare to support caregivers in their daily work routines. To ensure an effortless and easy interaction between caregivers and robots, communication via natural language is expected from robots. However, robotic speech bears a large potential for technical failures, which includes processing and communication failures. It is therefore necessary to investigate how caregivers perceive and respond to robots with erroneous communication. We recruited thirty caregivers, who interacted in a virtual reality setting with a robot. It was investigated whether different kinds of failures are more likely to be forgiven with technical or human-like justifications. Furthermore, we determined how tolerant caregivers are with a robot constantly returning a process failure and whether this depends on the robot’s response pattern (constant vs. variable). Participants showed the same forgiveness towards the two justifications. However, females liked the human-like justification more and males liked the technical justification more. Providing justifications with any reasonable content seems sufficient to achieve positive effects. Robots with a constant response pattern were liked more, although both patterns achieved the same tolerance threshold from caregivers, which was around seven failed requests. Due to the experimental setup, the tolerance for communication failures was probably increased and should be adjusted in real-life situations.

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Stereotyping of Social Robots in Eldercare: An Explorative Analysis of Ethical Problems and Possible Solutions

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Social Robotics as Moral Education? Fighting Discrimination Through the Design of Social Robots

Social Robotics as Moral Education? Fighting Discrimination Through the Design of Social Robots

Gender Bias and Conversational Agents: an ethical perspective on Social Robotics

When Robots Fail—A VR Investigation on Caregivers’ Tolerance towards Communication and Processing Failures

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