AUTHOR=Jackson Ryan Blake , Williams Tom 

TITLE=A Theory of Social Agency for Human-Robot Interaction

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.687726

DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.687726

ISSN=2296-9144

ABSTRACT=<p>Motivated by inconsistent, underspecified, or otherwise problematic theories and usages of <italic>social agency</italic> in the HRI literature, and leveraging philosophical work on <italic>moral</italic> agency, we present a theory of social agency wherein a social agent (a thing with social agency) is any <italic>agent</italic> capable of <italic>social action</italic> at some <italic>level of abstraction</italic>. Like previous theorists, we conceptualize <italic>agency</italic> as determined by the criteria of interactivity, autonomy, and adaptability. We use the concept of <italic>face</italic> from politeness theory to define <italic>social action</italic> as any action that threatens or affirms the face of a <italic>social patient</italic>. With these definitions in mind, we specify and examine the levels of abstraction most relevant to HRI research, compare notions of social agency and the surrounding concepts at each, and suggest new conventions for discussing social agency in our field.</p>