Excluded by Robots:Can Robot-Robot-Human Interaction Lead to Ostracism

Robot-Robot-Human Interaction is an emerging field, holding the potential to reveal social effects involved in human interaction with more than one robot. We tested if an interaction between one participant and two non-humanoid robots can lead to negative feelings related to ostracism, and if it can impact fundamental psychological needs including control, belonging, meaningful existence, and self-esteem. We implemented a physical ball-tossing activity based on the Cyberball paradigm. The robots' ball-tossing ratio towards the participant was manipulated in three conditions: Exclusion (10%), Inclusion (33%), and Over-inclusion (75%). Objective and subjective measures indicated that the Exclusion condition led to an ostracism experience which involved feeling "rejected", "ignored", and "meaningless", with an impact on various needs including control, belonging, and meaningful existence. We conclude that interaction with more than one robot can form a powerful social context with the potential to impact psychological needs, even when the robots have no humanoid features.

[1]  Jelte M. Wicherts,et al.  The Ordinal Effects of Ostracism: A Meta-Analysis of 120 Cyberball Studies , 2015, PloS one.

[2]  Robin R. Murphy,et al.  Survey of Non-facial/Non-verbal Affective Expressions for Appearance-Constrained Robots , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews).

[3]  Brian Scassellati,et al.  The Ripple Effects of Vulnerability: The Effects of a Robot’s Vulnerable Behavior on Trust in Human-Robot Teams , 2018, 2018 13th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[4]  Wendy Ju,et al.  Expressing thought: Improving robot readability with animation principles , 2011, 2011 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[5]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Chapter 6 Ostracism: A Temporal Need‐Threat Model , 2009 .

[6]  Guy Hoffman,et al.  Design and Evaluation of a Peripheral Robotic Conversation Companion , 2015, 2015 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[7]  Solace Shen,et al.  Robot Assisted Tower Construction - A Resource Distribution Task to Study Human-Robot Collaboration and Interaction with Groups of People , 2018, ArXiv.

[8]  Richard E. Boyatzis,et al.  Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development , 1998 .

[9]  Hadas Erel,et al.  Robots are Always Social: Robotic Movements are Automatically Interpreted as Social Cues , 2019, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[10]  R. Baumeister,et al.  The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory , 2000 .

[11]  Elisabeth André,et al.  Would You Like to Play with Me? How Robots’ Group Membership and Task Features Influence Human–Robot Interaction , 2014, 2014 9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[12]  Aaron Steinfeld,et al.  From One to Another: How Robot-Robot Interaction Affects Users' Perceptions Following a Transition Between Robots , 2019, 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[13]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Ostracism: On being ignored, excluded, and rejected. , 2001 .

[14]  Jan Sprenger,et al.  Testing a Precise Null Hypothesis: The Case of Lindley’s Paradox , 2013, Philosophy of Science.

[15]  Matthew D. Lieberman,et al.  Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion , 2003, Science.

[16]  M. Niedeggen,et al.  Are there benefits of social overinclusion? Behavioral and ERP effects in the Cyberball paradigm , 2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[17]  Guy Hoffman,et al.  The Greeting Machine: An Abstract Robotic Object for Opening Encounters , 2018, 2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).

[18]  Wendy Ju,et al.  Mechanical Ottoman: How Robotic Furniture Offers and Withdraws Support , 2015, 2015 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[19]  D. Algom,et al.  A rational look at the emotional stroop phenomenon: a generic slowdown, not a stroop effect. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[20]  Petr Slovák,et al.  “Stop. I See a Conflict Happening.” A Robot Mediator for Young Children’s Interpersonal Conflict Resolution , 2018, 2018 13th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[21]  S. Vogel-Scibilia,et al.  Ostracism: The Power of Silence , 2003 .

[22]  Dana Kulic,et al.  Measurement Instruments for the Anthropomorphism, Animacy, Likeability, Perceived Intelligence, and Perceived Safety of Robots , 2009, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[23]  K. Markon,et al.  Childhood aggression and gender: a new look at an old problem. , 1998, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[24]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  How robotic products become social products: An ethnographic study of cleaning in the home , 2007, 2007 2nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[25]  T. Shackelford,et al.  Social Ostracism , 2021, Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior.

[26]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Virtually Ostracized: Studying Ostracism in Immersive Virtual Environments , 2012, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[27]  K. Williams,et al.  Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance , 2006, Behavior research methods.

[28]  K. Williams,et al.  Cyberbomb: Effects of being ostracized from a death game , 2011 .

[29]  K. Bierman,et al.  Conceptions and perceived influence of peer groups: interviews with preadolescents and adolescents. , 1988, Child development.

[30]  Christoph Bartneck,et al.  Robots Can Be More Than Black And White: Examining Racial Bias Towards Robots , 2019, AIES.

[31]  Rjg Raymond Opdenakker.  Advantages and disadvantages of four interview techniques in qualitative research , 2006 .

[32]  R. Baumeister,et al.  The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[33]  Solace Shen,et al.  Micbot: A Peripheral Robotic Object to Shape Conversational Dynamics and Team Performance , 2019, 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[34]  Wendy Ju,et al.  The Design of Implicit Interactions: Making Interactive Systems Less Obnoxious , 2008, Design Issues.

[35]  Ana Levordashka,et al.  Ostracism Online: A social media ostracism paradigm , 2015, Behavior research methods.

[36]  K. Williams,et al.  Cyberostracism: effects of being ignored over the Internet. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  Michelle Verges,et al.  Freeze or flee? Negative stimuli elicit selective responding , 2008, Cognition.

[38]  Sangseok You,et al.  Trusting Robots in Teams: Examining the Impacts of Trusting Robots on Team Performance and Satisfaction , 2019, HICSS.

[39]  Takayuki Kanda,et al.  Footing in human-robot conversations: How robots might shape participant roles using gaze cues , 2009, 2009 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[40]  L. M. M.-T..  Theory of Probability , 1929, Nature.

[41]  F. Eyssel,et al.  Wanna play? The role of self-construal when using gadgets to cope with ostracism , 2015 .

[42]  Austin Lee Nichols,et al.  The Good-Subject Effect: Investigating Participant Demand Characteristics , 2008, The Journal of general psychology.

[43]  Illah R. Nourbakhsh,et al.  A survey of socially interactive robots , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[44]  Matthias Rauterberg,et al.  Who is a Better Tutor?: Gaze Hints with a Human or Humanoid Tutor in Game Play , 2017, HRI.

[45]  Hadas Erel,et al.  Companionship Is Not a Function: The Effect of a Novel Robotic Object on Healthy Older Adults' Feelings of "Being-Seen" , 2020, CHI.

[46]  Helmut Hlavacs,et al.  Real-life prosocial behavior decreases after being socially excluded by avatars, not agents , 2017, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[47]  Kumar Yogeeswaran,et al.  The bionic blues: Robot rejection lowers self-esteem , 2018, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[48]  C. Bartneck,et al.  A design-centred framework for social human-robot interaction , 2004, RO-MAN 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE Catalog No.04TH8759).

[49]  K. Williams,et al.  When inclusion costs and ostracism pays, ostracism still hurts. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[50]  Brian Scassellati,et al.  Trust and Conformity when Interacting with a Group of Robots , 2018, HRI.

[51]  Malene Flensborg Damholdt,et al.  Towards a new scale for assessing attitudes towards social robots , 2020 .

[52]  Brian R. Duffy,et al.  Anthropomorphism and the social robot , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[53]  Aaron Steinfeld,et al.  Inducing Bystander Interventions During Robot Abuse with Social Mechanisms , 2018, 2018 13th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[54]  Andreas Theodorou,et al.  What Does the Robot Think? Transparency as a Fundamental Design Requirement for Intelligent Systems , 2016, IJCAI 2016.

[55]  Guy Hoffman,et al.  Human-human-robot interaction: robotic object’s responsive gestures improve interpersonal evaluation in human interaction , 2020, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[56]  Reactions to claimed and granted overinclusion: Extending research on the effects of claimball versus cyberball , 2020, The Journal of social psychology.

[57]  Friederike Eyssel,et al.  Predictors of psychological anthropomorphization, mind perception, and the fulfillment of social needs: A case study with a zoomorphic robot , 2015, 2015 24th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).

[58]  M. Leary,et al.  Construct Validity of the Need to Belong Scale: Mapping the Nomological Network , 2013, Journal of personality assessment.

[59]  Wendy Ju,et al.  Designing robots with movement in mind , 2014, Journal of Human-Robot Interaction.

[60]  Rick Richardson,et al.  How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence , 2004 .

[61]  Guy Hoffman,et al.  Comparing Social Robot, Screen and Voice Interfaces for Smart-Home Control , 2017, CHI.

[62]  Wendy Ju,et al.  I get it already! the influence of ChairBot motion gestures on bystander response , 2017, 2017 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).

[63]  J. Gerber,et al.  Construct validity of Williams' ostracism needs threat scale , 2017 .

[64]  Brian K. Mok,et al.  Communicating Dominance in a Nonanthropomorphic Robot Using Locomotion , 2019, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.

[65]  F. Thomas,et al.  The illusion of life : Disney animation , 1981 .

[66]  Cynthia Breazeal,et al.  Designing Sociable Machines , 2002 .

[67]  Deshui Yu,et al.  Effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness: Behavioral and ERP evidence from a lexical decision task. , 2016, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.