Robots can be companions, caregivers, collaborators — and social influencers

By Shane Saunderson, Ph.D. Candidate, Robotics, University of Toronto

In the mid-1990s, there was research going on at Stanford University that would change the way we think about computers. The Media Equation experiments were simple: participants were asked to interact with a computer that acted socially for a few minutes after which, they were asked to give feedback about the interaction.

Participants would provide this feedback either on the same computer (No. 1) they had just been working on or on another computer (No. 2) across the…

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