Embodied Virtual Agents as a Means to Foster E-Inclusion of Older People

Noy, Dominic; Ribeiro, Pedro; Iurgel, Ido

doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-6708-2_8

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Socially assistive technologies (SATs) are increasingly used in healthcare. This includes, for example, various types of care robots, smart screen assistants, virtual avatars, or companion devices (Abdi et al, 2018;Leng et al, 2019;Mordoch et al, 2013;Noy et al, 2013;Yusif et al, 2016). Their use is discussed as a potential way to increase and maintain autonomy in caring situations (Bennett et al, 2017;Cowan and Turner-Smith 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socially Assistive Devices in Healthcare–a Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence from an Ethical Perspective

et al. 2023

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Socially assistive devices such as care robots or companions have been advocated as a promising tool in elderly care in Western healthcare systems. Ethical debates indicate various challenges. An important part of the ethical evaluation is to understand how users interact with these devices and how interaction influences users’ perceptions and their ability to express themselves. In this review, we report and critically appraise findings of non-comparative empirical studies with regard to these effects from an ethical perspective.Electronic databases and other sources were queried using a comprehensive search strategy generating 9851 records. Studies were screened independently by two authors. Methodological quality of studies was assessed. For 22 reports on 21 datasets using a non-comparative design a narrative synthesis was performed.Data shows positive findings in regard to attitudes and emotional reactions of users. Varying perception of a social relation and social presence are the most commonly observed traits of interaction. Users struggle with understanding technical complexities while functionality of the devices is limited. This leads to a behavioral alignment of users towards the requirements of the devices to be able to make use of them.This evidence adds to three important ethical debates on the use of socially assistive devices in healthcare in regard to (1) reliability of existing empirical evidence to inform normative judgements, (2) ethical significance of the social presence of devices and (3) user autonomy in regard to behavioral alignment.

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