When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study

A study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy examined how 50 men reacted when the humanoid robot Pepper made conversational errors, either while animated (gestures, eye contact, nods) or motionless. Expressive robot errors triggered coordinated activity in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex and raised oxytocin levels, which tracked with increased suspicion rather than bonding, predicting lower trust and less influence on decisions. Motionless robots' errors did not produce this brain coordination, suggesting people judge lifelike robots' mistakes as social violations rather than technical glitches, challenging the common design assumption that expressive robots retain more trust after errors.

Source: https://robohub.org/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.