Humans play in competition with a humanoid robot

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (S4HRI lab, coordinated by Agnieszka Wykowska) investigated whether a humanoid robot’s gaze influences the way people reason in a social decision-making context. What they found is that a mutual gaze with a robot affects human neural activity, influencing decision-making processes, in particular delaying them. These findings have strong implications for contexts where humanoids may find applications such as co-workers, clinical support or domestic assistants. Link to the study: Marwen Belkaid and Kyveli Kompatsiari, Davide de Tommaso, Ingrid Zablith, and Agnieszka Wykowska, “Mutual gaze with a robot affects human neural activity and delays decision-making processes”, Science Robotics, doi: The research is supported by the European Research Council.