What do humans feel with mistreated humans, animals, robots, and objects? Exploring the role of cognitive empathy

Mattiassi, Alan D. A.; Sarrica, Mauro; Cavallo, Filippo; Fortunati, Leopoldina

doi:10.1007/s11031-021-09886-2

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…Empathy includes the subfacets Perspective Taking (i.e., being able to change psychological perspective spontaneously), Fantasy (i.e., being able to empathize with fictional characters), Empathic Concern (i.e., compassion and worry for people in need), and Personal Distress (i.e., self-focused emotional reactions). Higher levels of Empathy are linked to the tendency to perceive robots as fellow social agents rather than unfeeling machines ( Rossi et al, 2020 ; Mattiassi et al, 2021 ). Links between familiarity with and empathic responses to robots were proposed ( Mattiassi et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Dimensions Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Higher levels of Empathy are linked to the tendency to perceive robots as fellow social agents rather than unfeeling machines ( Rossi et al, 2020 ; Mattiassi et al, 2021 ). Links between familiarity with and empathic responses to robots were proposed ( Mattiassi et al, 2021 ). Justice Sensitivity describes how people vary in how easily they perceive injustice and how strongly they react to it.…”

Section: Dimensions Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Embodied Digital Technologies: First Insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses

et al. 2022

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New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private spheres. It is thus crucial to understand concerns regarding their use in social and legal terms and the qualities they should possess to be accepted as ‘co-workers’. Previous research in these areas used the Stereotype Content Model to investigate, for example, attributions of Warmth and Competence towards people who use bionic prostheses, cyborgs, and robots. In the present study, we propose to differentiate the Warmth dimension into the dimensions of Sociability and Morality to gain deeper insight into how people with or without bionic prostheses are perceived. In addition, we extend our research to the perception of robots. Since legal aspects need to be considered if robots are expected to be ‘co-workers’, for the first time, we also evaluated current perceptions of robots in terms of legal aspects. We conducted two studies: In Study 1, participants rated visual stimuli of individuals with or without disabilities and low- or high-tech prostheses, and robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism in terms of perceived Competence, Sociability, and Morality. In Study 2, participants rated robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism in terms of perceived Competence, Sociability, and Morality, and additionally, Legal Personality, and Decision-Making Authority. We also controlled for participants’ personality. Results showed that attributions of Competence and Morality varied as a function of the technical sophistication of the prostheses. For robots, Competence attributions were negatively related to Anthropomorphism. Perception of Sociability, Morality, Legal Personality, and Decision-Making Authority varied as functions of Anthropomorphism. Overall, this study contributes to technological design, which aims to ensure high acceptance and minimal undesirable side effects, both with regard to the application of bionic instruments and robotics. Additionally, first insights into whether more anthropomorphized robots will need to be considered differently in terms of legal practice are given.

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Section: Dimensions Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dimensions Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Digital Technologies: First Insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Empathy, with the subfacets Perspective Taking (i.e., being able to change psychological perspective spontaneously), Fantasy (i.e., being able to empathize with fictional characters), Empathic Concern (i.e., compassion and worry for people in need), and Personal Distress (i.e., self-focused emotional reactions), describes the ability to understand and react adequately to others (C. Paulus, 2009). Higher levels of Empathy are linked to the tendency to perceive robots as fellow social agents rather than unfeeling machines (Mattiassi et al, 2021;Rossi et al, 2020). Links between familiarity with and empathic responses to robots were proposed (Mattiassi et al, 2021).…”

Section: Robots and Users Of High-vs Low-tech Prostheses Preprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Higher levels of Empathy are linked to the tendency to perceive robots as fellow social agents rather than unfeeling machines (Mattiassi et al, 2021;Rossi et al, 2020). Links between familiarity with and empathic responses to robots were proposed (Mattiassi et al, 2021). Justice Sensitivity describes how people vary in how easily they perceive injustice and how strong they react to it.…”

Section: Robots and Users Of High-vs Low-tech Prostheses Preprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Digital Technologies: First insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses.

Mandl¹,

Bretschneider²,

Meyer³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in work spaces and private spheres. It is thus crucial to understand concerns regarding their use in social and legal terms and the qualities they should possess to be accepted as ‘co-workers’. Previous research in these areas used the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to investigate, for example attributions of warmth and competence towards people who use bionic prostheses, cyborgs, and robots. In the present study, we propose to differentiate the Warmth dimension into the dimensions Sociability and Morality to gain deeper insight in how people with or without bionic prostheses are perceived. In addition, we extend our research to the perception of robots, such as industrial, social, or android robots. Since legal aspects need to be considered if robots are expected to be ‘co-workers’, we also evaluated current perceptions of robots in terms of legal questions. We conducted two studies in which participants rated visual stimuli of individuals with or without disabilities and low- or high-tech prostheses, and robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism (Study 1), or robots of different levels of Anthropomorphism (Study 2), in terms of Competence, Sociability, and Morality, and, for Study 2, Legal Personality and Decision-Making Authority. We also controlled for participants’ personality. Results showed that attributions of Competence and Morality varied as a function of technical sophistication of the prostheses. For robots, competence attributions were negatively related to Anthropomorphism. Sociability, Morality, Legal Personality , and Decision-Making Authority varied as functions of Anthropomorphism. Overall, this study provides a contribution to technological design, which aims at ensuring high acceptance and minimal undesirable side effects, both with regard to the application of bionic instruments and robotics. Additionally, first insights in whether more anthropomorphized robots will need to be considered differently in terms of legal practice are given.

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“…Individuals may also satisfy relational needs through artificial entities [15,16] and, in general, such entities appear able to influence some aspects of people's psychic life with relative ease [17][18][19]. Human beings are naturally inclined to attribute mental states to inanimate objects and animals through processes known as anthropomorphization, mind perception, and emotional attachment [20][21][22][23]. In this case, however, social robots are not just a passive receptacle of this human trend, but they have been developed to facilitate this attribution process through the implementation of human-like features that mimic human mental state representations and actions [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic Psychology: A PRISMA Systematic Review on Social-Robot-Based Interventions in Psychological Domains

Duradoni

Colombini

Russo

et al. 2021

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Current technological advancements have allowed robots to be successfully employed in the healthcare sector. However, the recently acquired ability of social robots to process social information and act according to it has potentially made them very well suited to support or conduct psychological interventions. The present paper carried out a systematic review of the available literature regarding social-robot-based interventions in psychological domains using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The inclusion criteria were: (i) publication date until 2020; (ii) being an empirical study, master thesis, or project report; (iii) written in English or Italian languages (the two languages spoken by the authors); (iv) published in a scholarly peer-reviewed journal or conference proceedings, or were Ph.D. or master’s theses; and (v) assessed “social robot”-based intervention in psychological domains. Overall, the review showed that three main areas may benefit from social-robot-based interventions: social skills, mood, and wellbeing (e.g., stress and anxiety levels). Interestingly, social robots seemed to have a performance comparable to, and sometimes even better than, human operators. The main, but not exclusive, target of robot-based interventions in the psychological field was children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As evidence is, however, still limited and in an embryonic state, deeper investigations are needed to assess the full potential of social robots for the purposes of psychological intervention. This is relevant, considering the role that social robots could have in overcoming barriers to access psychological assessment and therapies.

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What do humans feel with mistreated humans, animals, robots, and objects? Exploring the role of cognitive empathy

Cited by 14 publications

References 68 publications

Embodied Digital Technologies: First Insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses

Embodied Digital Technologies: First Insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses

Embodied Digital Technologies: First insights in the Social and Legal Perception of Robots and Users of Prostheses.

Robotic Psychology: A PRISMA Systematic Review on Social-Robot-Based Interventions in Psychological Domains

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