Empathy in Humanoid Robots.

Humanoid robots should be able to interact with humans in a familiar way since they are going to play a significant role in the future. Thus, it is necessary that Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is designed in such a way that allows humans to communicate with robots effortlessly and naturally. Emotions play an important role in this interaction since humans feel more predisposed to interact with robots if they are able to create an affective bond with them. In this study, we want to know whether humans are able to empathize with a humanoid robot. Therefore, in the present research, we are going to recreate a Milgram experiment in which we expect participants to empathize with the robot while playing a matching game. Like in Milgram’s experiment, they will have to give fake electrical shocks to the robot thinking that they are punishing it. In that way, an empathic state, which we expect to see in our results, may be induced.