Robot with tears promote psychological anthropomorphism

Robot psychological anthropomorphism is important for social human–robot interactions. Although robot facial expressions and gestures have been shown to facilitate psychological anthropomorphism, it is unclear whether they are also present in the emotional expressions of shedding tears. Therefore, this study aims to verify whether robot tears promote psychological anthropomorphism. Tear processing was applied to the robot’s pictures to produce pictures with and without tears, which were used as visual stimuli. In Study 1, a picture of the robot was presented, and participants were asked to respond to the robot's Sociability, Agency, Animacy, and Disturbance. The results showed that the presence of tears increased the ratings of Animacy but did not change the other variables. In Study 2, participants were presented with a picture of the robot and a short scenario (death or farewell) describing a situation involving the robot, in which they were asked to answer the same questions as in Study 1. The results showed that the ratings for Animacy, Sociability, and Agency increased. Thus, the results indicate that robot tears may promote psychological anthropomorphism but suggest that context is important for this effect. This finding suggests that Animacy is a fundamental aspect of anthropomorphism.