Netherlands, October 20, 2024 – Sad virtual eyes, moans coming from metallic speakers and trembling arms: one can feel compassion for a painful robot?
The researcher Marieke Wieringa from Radboud University in the Netherlands explains how it might be possible to try a sense of pity for a robot who reacts to acts of ‘violence’ with “pitiful sounds or gestures that we associate with pain”.
The doctoral student’s thesis investigates how people respond to robots that display emotions when they are ‘attacked’. The study examines how such robots influence emotions and people’s behavior towards the same machines.
The results show that people are slightly more likely to believe that a robot is actually feeling pain when it acts as if it is experiencing emotional distress. Those who participated in the experiment had no problems with the robots not showing any emotion. Instead, it soon became clear that automatons can arouse compassion they made people feel much more guilty.
A further outcome suggests that robots that display emotions might be capable of manipulate people. The thesis will probably send the message that such behavior will not be accepted in society and, according to Wieringa, the research also highlights the need for rules that will establish the cases in which robots, chatbots and the like are allowed to simulate emotions.
The researcher warns that the human ability to feel compassion even for inanimate objects may soon be exploited by companies. “It is also true, however, that emotional robots would have some advantages. For example – observes the researcher – they could be used in rehabilitation therapies aimed at helping those who have had a trauma, thus facilitating recovery by those undergoing treatment. We like to think that we are very logical and rational creatures who are not easily fooled, but in the end it is also our emotions that guide us: and that’s fine, otherwise – concludes Wieringa – we too would be robots”.
