Friends or Foes? Socioemotional Support and Gaze Behaviors in Mixed Groups of Humans and Robots

This study investigated non-verbal behavior and socioemotional interactions in small-groups of humans and robots. Sixty-participants were involved in a group setting in which they were required to play a card game with another human and two robots (playing as partners or as opponents). The two robots displayed different goal orientations: a competitive robot (named Emys-) and a relationship-driven cooperative robot (named Glin+). Video recordings of the interactions were analyzed in three game play sessions. Eye gaze and socioemotional support behaviors were coded based on Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis. Results indicated that gaze behavior towards partners was more frequently displayed to the relationship-driven robot than to the competitive robot and the human partners. In contrast, gaze towards opponents occurred more often towards the competitive robot than to the relationship-driven robot and the human opponents. Socioemotional support occurred more frequently towards partners than opponents, and was also displayed more often towards humans than towards robots. Moreover, in the sessions where the robots were opponents, participants provided more support to the competitive robot. This investigation in small groups of humans and robots provided evidence of different interaction patterns towards robots displaying distinct orientation goals, which can be useful in guiding the successful design of social robots.