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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1391832
This article is part of the Research Topic Emotions and Artificial Intelligence View all 10 articles

Is it Possible for People to Develop a Sense of Empathy Towards Humanoid Robots and Establish Meaningful Relationships with Them?

Provisionally accepted
Elena Morgante Elena Morgante Carla Susinna Carla Susinna *Laura Culicetto Laura Culicetto Angelo Quartarone Angelo Quartarone Viviana Lo Buono Viviana Lo Buono
  • IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Messina, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Empathy can be described as the ability to adopt another person's perspective and comprehend, feel, share, and respond to their emotional experiences. Empathy plays an important role in these relationships and is constructed in human-robot interaction (HRI). This systematic review focuses on studies investigating human empathy towards robots. We intend to define empathy as the cognitive capacity of humans to perceive robots as equipped with emotional and psychological states. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of peer-reviewed articles using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases. All articles were reviewed based on the titles, abstracts, and full texts by two investigators (EM and CS) who independently performed data collection. The researchers read the full-text articles deemed suitable for the study, and in cases of disagreement regarding the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the final decision was made by a third researcher (VLB). Results: The electronic search identified 484 articles. After reading the full texts of the selected publications and applying the predefined inclusion criteria, we selected 11 articles that met our inclusion criteria. Robots that could identify and respond appropriately to the emotional states of humans seemed to evoke empathy. In addition, empathy tended to grow more when the robots exhibited anthropomorphic traits. Discussion: Humanoid robots can be programmed to understand and react to human emotions and simulate empathetic responses; however, they are not endowed with the same innate capacity for empathy as human.

    Keywords: Empathy, human-robot interaction, humanoid robots, Social Robots, Rehabilitation

    Received: 26 Feb 2024; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Morgante, Susinna, Culicetto, Quartarone and Lo Buono. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carla Susinna, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Messina, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.