Configuring Humans: What Roles Humans Play in HRI Research

Humans are an essential part of human-robot interaction (HRI), but what roles do they play in HRI research? Analysis of the role of human subjects in research can serve as an indicator of how the HRI community engages with society. In this paper, we examine humans' roles in the HRI studies published at the ACM HRI conference over the course of 16 years (between 2006–2021). We categorize the studies into three groups. The studies in the first group investigated human nature and studied humans as interchangeable subjects; the studies in the second group addressed humans as users of robots in certain contexts; the third group of studies approached humans as social actors who are closely connected to other actors and thereby generate social dynamics. The contributions of this paper are twofold: First, we reveal the patterns of how humans have been included in HRI studies. Specifically, we find that more than half of the studies limited the role of humans to interchangeable and generalizable actors. Second, we outline three opportunities for the HRI community that arise if human subjects are given more diversified roles in HRI research - opportunities for diversity, social justice, and reflexivity. On this basis, we call for a more socially -engaged research in HRI.