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Better Than Human: About the Psychological Superpowers of Robots

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9979))

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Abstract

Social interaction is crucial for psychological wellbeing. However, for the elderly, desiring to live independently in their homes for as long as possible, getting the emotional care needed can become challenging. Robots as social companions may help. To design companions, we argue to focus on the hybrid nature of robots in between being a “thing” and a “human” thus utilizing the unique “capabilities” of a robot. We discuss six psychological superpowers of robots rooted in their “thingness” rather than “humanness.” Robots are void of competitiveness, have endless patience, can be unconditionally subordinated, have the ability to contain themselves, do not take things personally and can assume responsibility. These qualities all relate to everyday companionship, but may be difficult to actually realize for fellow humans. By exploiting these superpowers, robot companions can become meaningful – not as a substitute for other humans, but as a novel, complementary form of social interaction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    SYMPARTNER 16SV7221 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), project SYMPARTNER (Grant: 16SV7221).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Folkwang University of the Arts, Experience and Interaction, Essen, Germany

    Julika Welge & Marc Hassenzahl

Authors
  1. Julika Welge
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  2. Marc Hassenzahl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julika Welge .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Indiana, USA

    Arvin Agah

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    John-John Cabibihan

  3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

    Ayanna M. Howard

  4. Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, University Carlos III de Madrid, madrid, Spain

    Miguel A. Salichs

  5. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Hongsheng He

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Welge, J., Hassenzahl, M. (2016). Better Than Human: About the Psychological Superpowers of Robots. In: Agah, A., Cabibihan, JJ., Howard, A., Salichs, M., He, H. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9979. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47437-3_97

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47437-3_97

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47436-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47437-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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