Feel for me! Robot’s Reactions to Abuse Influence Humans’ Empathy

Prevention of abuse of autonomous robots is one of the major challenges in getting robots out”in the wild The involvement of observing pedestrians of an abusive situation might be a key factor to stop abuse. We investigated how a delivery robot’s different reactions to abuse affect an observer’s situational empathy and affect towards the robot. In two studies, a total of 364 participants watched short videos of a delivery robot being kicked by an “abuser” and observed one of four different pre-tested robot reactions towards abuse: sad face, neutral face, white screen, and black screen. Concerning negative affect and situational empathy towards the robot and the abuser, significant differences were found between screen on conditions (sad, neutral, white) and the screen off condition (black screen). No differences were found between the different screen on conditions. Especially, negative affect, ascribed warmth to the robot, and empathetic concern significantly predicted situational empathy. Humans seem to empathize most with a delivery robot indicating “being on” (white screen or facial expression) while the emotional facial reaction had no effects. Thus, autonomous robots should always show signs of being turned on when operating autonomously on the streets in order to raise empathy and prevent abuse.