On the third day of Robophilosophy 2024, Katharina Kühne, doctoral student at the University of Potsdam, gave a talk entitled „Robots at Arm’s Length – Unveiling the Dynamics of Interpersonal Distance Preferences in Human-Robot Interactions“. From the abstract: „In social interactions, interpersonal distance influences relationships, provides protection, and regulates arousal. Despite the intuitive nature of adopting specific distances, little is known about comfortable interpersonal distances with social robots. The talk reports on a study where 66 participants saw individuals standing face-to-face with a robot at different distances and pressed a button when seeing a woman or a man. In line with the negativity bias hypothesis, suggesting quicker reaction times to negative stimuli, participants showed a preference for increased distances, resulting in longer reaction times. Human-likeness of robots moderated the link between distance and arousal. The most human-like robot was less liked and evoked higher arousal. These findings potentially have implications for designing social robots and optimizing interactions, particularly in educational or medical contexts.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024) The researcher’s presentation refers to the paper “Robots at arm’s length: Unveiling the dynamics of interpersonal distance preferences in human-robot interactions” by Katharina Kühne, Laura M. Zimmer, Melina Jeglinski-Mende, Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zhou, and Martin Fischer. It will be published in autumn or winter 2024.

Fig.: Katharina Kühne after her talk