Robots are popping up everywhere, from public spaces to potentially your own living room soon.
Many of these new-age robots are designed to look like us, with human-like bodies and features. But how do we feel about them?
That’s a question researchers at the University of Bremen are diving into, especially when it comes to robots with eyes. Their study, which you can find on the SSRN preprint server, suggests that robots with eyes are seen as having more of a “mind” than those without. Interesting, right?
Jari Hietanen, Samuli Linnunsalo, and Dennis Küster, the brains behind this research, point out something fascinating: the more human-like a robot looks, the more we tend to think it has a mind of its own.
This study specifically looked at whether robots with eyes are perceived as having more mind-like qualities. We often associate eyes with emotions and thoughts, so it’s no surprise that this might extend to how we view robots.
The researchers created images of highly realistic humanoid robots, some with eyes and some without, to see how people would react. They ran two experiments, involving 200 and 100 participants, using images from the Imagine Art platform.
In the first experiment, participants answered questions about a robot’s ability to have self-control, moral reasoning, emotional experience, and consciousness after seeing the images. The second experiment used something called the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to dig into subconscious attitudes.
And guess what? People consistently attributed more “mind” to the robots with eyes, both in what they said outright and what they felt deep down.
So, why does this matter? Well, these findings could shape how future humanoid robots are designed. If eyes make robots seem more capable of human-like thoughts and feelings, designers might want to consider this when creating new models.
Plus, it raises some big questions about the psychological and ethical sides of giving machines a “mind.”
