Vulnerable robots foster teamwork

Robots that express vulnerability promote social engagement, positive experiences, and equally distributed conversation among humans working in teams, a study finds. Robot behavior can influence interactions between humans and robots, but how robots affect interactions among humans is unclear. Nicholas Christakis and colleagues conducted an experiment in which groups of three humans and one robot participated in a collaborative game. A total of 153 human participants were assigned to three conditions characterized by different types of robot behavior. At the end of each round, the robot remained silent, uttered neutral task-related facts, or made a vulnerable statement, such as telling a joke or personal story or acknowledging mistakes. People who heard vulnerable statements spent approximately twice as much time talking to one another and later reported that their teams were more positive, compared with people in groups in which the robot remained silent or made neutral statements. In addition, conversation among humans increased more over time and was more equally distributed in the vulnerable condition. Taken together, the findings suggest that robots can influence communication among humans, going beyond robot-human interactions. According to the authors, the results could inform the design of artificial agents that promote social engagement, balanced participation, and positive experiences of humans working in teams.

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Article #19-10402: “Vulnerable robots positively shape human conversational dynamics in a human-robot team,” by Margaret L. Traeger, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Malte Jung, Brian Scassellati, and Nicholas A. Christakis.

MEDIA CONTACT: Nicholas Christakis, Yale University, New Haven, CT; tel: 978-760-2945; e-mail:

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