Observed non-humanoid robot actions induce vicarious agency when perceived as social actors, not as objects

Pascolini, Luca, Bayliss, Andrew, Le, Anh and Wyer, Natalie (2025) Observed non-humanoid robot actions induce vicarious agency when perceived as social actors, not as objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. ISSN 0096-1523 (In Press)

Microsoft Word (OpenXML) (CozmoPaper_R2_Final) - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 31 December 2099. Available under License Unspecified licence. Request a copy

Abstract

Robots are rapidly becoming a common aspect of our physical environments, but it is unclear under what conditions they can integrate into our social world. One prerequisite of such integration may be the perception that robots are agents that act with intention. In two experiments we used a temporal binding paradigm to explore how the implicit sense of agency might be vicariously induced by observing robot actions. In two experiments wherein participants interacted with.a simple non-humanoid toy robot, we found underestimation of the temporal gap between observed robot action and outcome (i.e., temporal binding, an index of the implicit sense of agency; Experiments 1 and 2). Critically however, this was only the case if participants had engaged previously with the robot in a ‘social’ game (Experiment 2). In contrast, binding was weaker for participants who had interacted with the robot on a mechanistic basis. These results are consistent with the notion that even non-humanoid social robots can evoke an implicit sense of vicarious agency, but only in restricted social contexts.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Social Cognition Research Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	06 May 2025 09:33
Last Modified:	06 May 2025 09:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99186
DOI:	issn:0096-1523

Actions (login required)

View Item