On the Psychological Effects of Human-Robot Touch
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That Robot Touch that Means so Much: On the Psychological Effects of Human-Robot Touch Von der Fakultät für Ingenieurwissenschaften, Abteilung Informatik und Angewandte Kognitionswissenschaft der Universität Duisburg-Essen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) genehmigte Dissertation von Laura Hoffmann aus Oberhausen 1. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Nicole Krämer 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Shyam Sundar Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 24.01.2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. After all these month, days, hours, and sleepless nights of writing, I finally like to be short and concise in saying THANK YOU! Thanks to all of those who supported me in any way. Dr. German Neubaum, Oliver Twist, Nicole Krämer, Tina Ganster, Home Office, Astrid Rosenthal-von der Pütten, Sabrina Eimler, Sabrina Sobieraj, Leonie Rösner, Elias Kyewski, Ti Kalela, Helga Rudack, Esther Wessel, Hari Bo, Oreo Ice-Cream, Fran Fitzgerald, and last but not least Family & friends. Special thanks to my parents, my housemate Benjamin Kunold, my 24/7 iMessage companion Kathrin Schielke, my bearded friend Jessica Szczuka, my seasonal friend Stefan World Wide Winter, my officemate Carolin Straßmann, and to the student assistants Vera Sauer, Svea Delsing and Janina Lehr. Also thanks to my past self for the infinite tolerance of frustration and despair. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Markus Kleutges (Hochschule Niederrhein, Krefeld), Prof. Josef Pauli (University of Duisburg-Essen), and Prof. Dr. Jochen Steil (CoR Lab, Bielefeld University) who enabled access to the robots that were photographed for Study 1 and 3. Initial ideas and preliminary results of the present dissertation have been presented in talks and poster sessions at doctoral consortia, summer schools, and national as well as international conferences. Please consult the following references for more information: Hoffmann, L. (2015). Robot Touch for Human Well-Being. Poster presented at the International Summer School “Living with Media”, Cologne, Germany, July 2015. Hoffmann, L. (2015). Exploring the Meaning of Touch in Human-Robot Interaction. Research proposal presented at the Doctoral Consortium of the Communication and Technology Division at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, ICA 2015, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 2015. Hoffmann, L. & Krämer, N.C. (2014). In Touch with Robots - Exploration of the perception of touch in human- robot interactions. Talk at CrossWorlds 2014, Chemnitz, Germany, June-July 2014. Hoffmann, L. & Krämer, N.C. (2013). Exploring the Perception and Interpretation of Touch in HRI. Talk at the 8th Conference of Media Psychology, Würzburg, Germany, September 2013. Hoffmann, L. (2013). “In Touch” with Robots – Investigating the impact of touch in human-robot interactions. Poster presented at the HRI Pioneers Workshop, Tokyo, Japan, March 2013. Hoffmann, L. (2012) Relational Message Communication Through Touch by Humanoid Robots. Proceedings of KogWis 2012, p.42, Bamberg 2012. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.” ― John Lennon ABSTRACT Robots are unique compared to other forms of artificial intelligence because they own a physical body that allows them to get into physical contact with humans. There is a huge amount of literature and empirical work that demonstrates the importance of touch for the development of man as well as other species as monkeys. Especially, the positive impact of interpersonal touch on health, bonding and attachment has been frequently observed. Furthermore, positive evaluative consequences of interpersonal touch on the toucher, i.e., the initiator of touch, and the surroundings has been revealed, as well as an influence on compliance and helping. Taken together it seems as if touch is a powerful way of nonverbal communication that is capable to increase the well-being of the receiver, and the initiator of touch, too. Against the background of earlier work in the realm of human-computer interaction that demonstrated that people equate interactions with interactive media as computers or robots with interpersonal interactions (media equation: Nass & Moon, 2000; Reeves & Nass, 1996; see also Krämer & Hoffmann, 2016, for an updated overview), it is assumed that touch from a robot can result in comparable positive impacts on human well- being. As a prerequisite for the examination of the physiological and psychological effects of human-robot touch, basic research was first necessary to structure the field of human- robot touch in comparison to interpersonal touch. For that purpose, four empirical studies were conducted that untangled the perception of human-robot touch referring to research on interpersonal touch, to test whether the media equation also applies to a fundamental interpersonal phenomenon such as touch. Therefore, the perception of different forms of human-robot touch with different robots (Study 1 & 2) in different interaction contexts (Study 3) were first considered in the most controllable way by means of the observation and evaluation of photographs. In addition, the underlying appraisal process that decides upon the final reaction to robot touch was theoretically and practically considered based on expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1983; Burgoon & Hale, 1988) that originates from the field of interpersonal communication. Finally, actual touch initiated by a robot to participants in a laboratory experiment were regarded and analyzed with respect to the impact of robot touch on participants’ subjective evaluation, as well as on observable reactions as laughing, compliance and helping (Study 4). In conclusion, influencing variables that determine the desirability of human-robot touch were revealed, namely characteristics of the robot (morphology and size), characteristics of the person (e.g., attitudes towards touch, attitudes towards robots, touch expectancies), the intimacy and direction of touch, i.e., who touches whom, and the meaning assigned to human-robot touch regarding relational interpretations of closeness and affection. Finally, positive emotional reactions to actual robot-initiated touch, and heightened compliance have been observed in a laboratory experiment. TABLE OF CONTENTS I: INTRODUCTION 1 II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 1 Interpersonal Communication as a Theoretical Basis to Study HRT 6 2 Interpersonal Touch 8 2.1 Definition of Interpersonal Touch 8 2.2 The Meanings of Different Forms of Interpersonal Touch 9 2.2.1 Affective and Functional Purposes of Interpersonal Touch 9 2.2.2 Communicative Functions and Social Meaning of Touch 10 2.3 The Importance of Interpersonal Touch for Health and Development 11 2.4 Studies on the Effects of Interpersonal Touch 13 2.5 Individual Differences in Terms of Interpersonal Touch 16 2.6 Attempts to Explain the Positive Impact of Interpersonal Touch 17 2.6.1 Affective response 17 2.6.2 Physiological Reaction – hormonal, pressure receptors 18 2.6.3 A Reflex or the Interpersonal Component? 18 3 Human–Robot Touch 20 3.1 Definition 20 3.2 Robot Therapy for Human Well-Being 23 3.3 Empirical Studies on the Impact of Different Kinds of HRT 24 3.3.1 Studies on human-initiated touch to robots 28 3.3.2 Studies on robots that perceive human touch and react to it 31 3.3.3 Studies on reciprocal and mixed-initiative touch 32 3.3.4 Studies on robot-initiated touch 34 3.4 Summary on Previous Work on HRT 35 3.5 Shortcomings of Earlier Studies on HRT 37 4 Synopsis of the Theoretical Background and Global Research Question 41 III: EMPIRICAL STUDIES 43 5 Introduction to Empirical Studies 44 5.1 Diverging Perspectives on Touch: Observation Versus Participation 45 5.2 Methodological Approach of the Present Thesis 45 6 Study 1: Qualitative Interviews on the perception, interpretation & evaluation of HRT from an observer perspective 48 6.1 Specific Research Questions & Hypotheses 48 6.2 Method 52 6.2.1 Interviewees 52 6.2.2 Application of Observer Perspective 52 6.2.3 Stimulus Material 53 6.2.4 Interview Procedure and Protocol 54 6.2.5 Data Preparation and Analyses 59 6.2.5.1 Transcription 59 6.2.5.2 Content Analysis 59 6.2.5.3 Additional Scale Ratings 59 6.2.5.3 Coding Frame and Units of coding 59 6.3 Interview Results 61 6.3.1 General perception of the different robot types 61 6.3.2 Acceptability of Robot Touch 64 6.3.3 Perception of HRT 69 7.3.3.1 Perception valence (think aloud) 69 6.3.3.2 Perceived valence according to touch form 72 6.3.3.3 Perceived valence according to robot type 75 6.3.3.4 Expectedness and harassment of HRT 78 6.3.3.5 Expectedness according to touch form 79 6.3.3.7 Harassment ratings according to touch form 81 6.3.3.8 Robot Influence on perceived expectedness and harassment 83 6.4 Relational Interpretation of HRT 87 6.4.1 Relational Interpretations according to touch form 89 6.4.2 Relational interpretations according to robot type 90 6.4.3 Relational themes within personal relationship interpretation 91 6.4.4 Relational themes according to touch form 94 6.4.5 Self-Assessment of Anticipated Emotional State 97 6.4.5.1 Anticipated emotional state according to touch form 98 6.4.5.2 Anticipated emotional state according to robot type 101 6.5 Discussion of the Qualitative Interviews 106 6.5.1 Summary of the results and interpretation with regard to the research questions 107 6.5.1.1 How acceptable is robot touch to humans? 107 6.5.1.2 How is HRT perceived from an observer perspective? 108 6.5.1.3 How is HRT interpreted from an observer perspective? 110 6.5.1.4 How is HRT evaluated based on personal feelings?