Social Robots Outdo the Not-So-Social Media for Self-Disclosure: Safe Machines Preferred to Unsafe Humans?

Luo, R.; Zhang, Thea X. Y.; Chen, Derrick H.-C.; Hoorn, Johan F.; Huang, Ivy S.

doi:10.3390/robotics11050092

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Previous studies have reported that people in a bad mood benefited more from disclosing to a robot than participating in writing disclosures in a journal [70] or on social media [77]. Another good example is affect labelling, a simple and implicit emotional regulation technique aimed at explicitly expressing emotions, or in other words-putting feelings into words [78].…”

Section: Using Self-disclosure For a Social Robotic Intervention To S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Long-Term Human–Robot Relationships: Examining Disclosure, Perception and Well-Being Across Time

Laban,

Kappas,

Morrison

et al. 2023

Int J of Soc Robotics

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While interactions with social robots are novel and exciting for many people, one concern is the extent to which people’s behavioural and emotional engagement might be sustained across time, since during initial interactions with a robot, its novelty is especially salient. This challenge is particularly noteworthy when considering interactions designed to support people’s well-being, with limited evidence (or empirical exploration) of social robots’ capacity to support people’s emotional health over time. Accordingly, our aim here was to examine how long-term repeated interactions with a social robot affect people’s self-disclosure behaviour toward the robot, their perceptions of the robot, and how such sustained interactions influence factors related to well-being. We conducted a mediated long-term online experiment with participants conversing with the social robot Pepper 10 times over 5 weeks. We found that people self-disclose increasingly more to a social robot over time, and report the robot to be more social and competent over time. Participants’ moods also improved after talking to the robot, and across sessions, they found the robot’s responses increasingly comforting as well as reported feeling less lonely. Finally, our results emphasize that when the discussion frame was supposedly more emotional (in this case, framing questions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic), participants reported feeling lonelier and more stressed. These results set the stage for situating social robots as conversational partners and provide crucial evidence for their potential inclusion in interventions supporting people’s emotional health through encouraging self-disclosure.

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Section: Using Self-disclosure For a Social Robotic Intervention To S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Long-Term Human–Robot Relationships: Examining Disclosure, Perception and Well-Being Across Time

Laban,

Kappas,

Morrison

et al. 2023

Int J of Soc Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, James Pennebaker writing disclosure paradigm [70,71] helps people to facilitate their emotions when writing about their own experiences. Interestingly, previous studies found that people in bad mood benefited more from disclosing to a robot than participating in writing disclosure using a journal [65] or on social media [72]. Another good example is affect labelling, a simple and implicit emotional regulation technique aimed at explicitly expressing emotions, or in other words -putting feelings into words [73].…”

Section: Using Self-disclosure For Social Robotic Interventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-Robot Relationship: long-term effects on disclosure, perception and well-being

Laban

Kappas

Morrison

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Since interactions with social robots are novel and exciting for many people, one concern is the extent to which people’s behavioural and emotional engagement with robots might develop from initial interactions with a robot, when a robot’s novelty is especially salient, and sustained over time. This challenge is particularly noticeable in interactions designed to support people’s wellbeing, with limited evidence for how social robots can support people’s emotional health over time. Accordingly, this research is aimed at studying how long-term repeated interactions with a social robot affect people’s self-disclosure behaviour toward the robot, perceptions of the robot, and how it affected factors related to well-being. We conducted a mediated long-term online experiment with participants conversing with the social robot Pepper 10 times over 5 weeks. We found that people self-disclose increasingly more to a social robot over time, and found the robot to be more social and competent over time. Participants’ moods got better after talking to the robot and across sessions, they found the robot’s responses to be more comforting over time, and they also reported feeling less lonely over time. Finally, our results stress that when the discussion theme was supposedly more emotional, participants felt lonelier and stressed. These results set the stage for addressing social robots as conversational partners and provide crucial evidence for their potential introduction as interventions supporting people’s emotional health through encouraging self-disclosure.

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“…An extension to the study address also the gratification of anonymity when self-disclosing to robots, showing that self-disclosing to a robot was also more effective for those in a negative mood than self-disclosing on social media (123). Early work by (124) shows that in a sample of 44 students, participants were less embarrassed when interacting with a "technical box" than with a social robot "iCat" (Phillips) in medical settings asking participants to undress and disclose relevant personal information (e.g., their weight).…”

Section: Anonymity and Rapport In Interactions With Social Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing with Robots: Why do we do it and how does it make us feel?

Laban,

Cross

2023

Preprint

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Self-disclosure facilitates relationships and can have a positive effect on people’s well-being. Nevertheless, people might refrain from engaging in self-disclosure and other interpersonal communication activities due to shame and stigma. Social robots, free from judgment, could encourage openness and overcome these barriers. This in-depth narrative review explores the mechanisms of self-disclosure in interactions with social robots, uncovering the motivations that drive individuals to share personal information and emotions with these artificial agents, as well as understanding the emotional outcomes of such interactions. Supported by empirical evidence, the paper emphasizes how self-disclosure to robots can have a positive impact on emotional well-being. Through this exploration, the review offers insights into the evolving dynamics of human-robot relationships and communication, uncovering new possibilities for emotional support and engagement. Ultimately, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms behind self-disclosure in the context of social robots and sheds light on the reasons behind this behaviour and the emotional experiences it generates.

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Social Robots Outdo the Not-So-Social Media for Self-Disclosure: Safe Machines Preferred to Unsafe Humans?

Cited by 5 publications

References 62 publications

Building Long-Term Human–Robot Relationships: Examining Disclosure, Perception and Well-Being Across Time

Building Long-Term Human–Robot Relationships: Examining Disclosure, Perception and Well-Being Across Time

Human-Robot Relationship: long-term effects on disclosure, perception and well-being

Sharing with Robots: Why do we do it and how does it make us feel?

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