Robot Reciprocation of Hugs Increases Both Interacting Times and Self-disclosures

Physical contact like touching and hugging plays an essential role in social bonding between people by encouraging interactions and self-disclosure. However, in a human–robot interaction context, it remains unknown whether physical activity with robots provides such similar effects, even though seve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of social robotics 2021-04, Vol.13 (2), p.353-361
Main Authors: Shiomi, Masahiro, Nakata, Aya, Kanbara, Masayuki, Hagita, Norihiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Control
Engineering
Mechatronics
Reciprocation
Robotics
Robots
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Summary:Physical contact like touching and hugging plays an essential role in social bonding between people by encouraging interactions and self-disclosure. However, in a human–robot interaction context, it remains unknown whether physical activity with robots provides such similar effects, even though several positive effects of touch interactions have been unveiled. Therefore, we used a hugging robot that we previously developed and experimentally investigated its physical interactions related to encouraging interactions and self-disclosure with 48 participants. Our results showed that reciprocated hugs increased the interaction times and encouraged more self-disclosure from the hugged participants than those who did not get reciprocated hugs.
ISSN:1875-4791
1875-4805
DOI:10.1007/s12369-020-00644-x