Seeing is not Feeling the Touch from a Robot

A pre-registered conceptual video-based replication of a laboratory experiment was conducted to test whether the impact of a robot’s non-functional touch to a human can be studied from observation (online). Therefore, n=92 participants watched either a video recording of the same human–robot interaction with or without touch. The interpretation, evaluation, and emotional as well as behavioral responses were collected by means of an online-survey. The results show that the observation of touch affects observers’ emotional state: Contrary to what was hypothesized, observers felt significantly better when no touch was visible and they evaluated the robot’s touch as inappropriate. The findings are compared to results from a laboratory experiment to raise awareness for the different perspectives involved in observing and experiencing touch.