Effects of (in)accurate empathy and situational valence on attitudes towards robots

Empathy has great potential in human-robot interaction. However, the challenging nature of assessing the user's emotional state points to the importance of also understanding the effects of empathic behaviours incongruent with users' affective experience. A 3×2 between-subject video-based survey experiment (N=133) was conducted with empathic robot behaviour (empathically accurate, neutral, inaccurate) and valence of the situation (positive, negative) as dimensions. Trust decreased when empathic responses were incongruent with the affective state of the user. However, in the negative valence condition, reported perceived empathic abilities were greater when the robot responded as if the situation were positive.