The field of social robotics offers an unprecedented opportunity to probe the process of impression formation and the effects of identity-based stereotypes (e.g. about gender or race) on social judgements and interactions. We present the concept of fair proxy communication—a form of robot-mediated communication that proceeds in the absence of potentially biasing identity cues—and describe how this application of social robotics may be used to illuminate implicit bias in social cognition and inform novel interventions to reduce bias. We discuss key questions and challenges for the use of robots in research on the social cognition of bias and offer some practical recommendations. We conclude by discussing boundary conditions of this new form of interaction and by raising some ethical concerns about the inclusion of social robots in psychological research and interventions.

Article

Theme issue ‘From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human–robot interaction’  

Joshua Skewes, David M. Amodio and Johanna Seibt (2019): Social robotics and the modulation of social perception and bias. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Volume 374, Issue 1771.

Link to article

Contact

Joshua Skewes, Associate Professor, School of Culture and Society & IMC