There are various social encounters in life that are embarrassing in some way or other.  Buying sensitive medicines in a pharmacy, for instance.  Recent research from the University of Massachusetts explores whether engaging with a robot might make such encounters less squeamish.

The study found that interacting with a robot can indeed reduce our feelings of embarrassment.  For instance, in one experiment volunteers were asked to book into a medical clinic to discuss a hemorrhoid problem.  Half of the volunteers thought they were speaking with a human receptionist, with the other half thinking they were talking to a robot receptionist.  Their embarrassment levels were measured in each situation, and those talking to the robot felt less embarrassed than those talking with the human.

What others think

The authors highlight that our embarrassment often stems from what others may think of us.  The fact that robots are generally incapable of forming judgments of us prohibits this potential for embarrassment.

This was confirmed in a second experiment, which mirrored the first in that people imagined they were in a pharmacy asking for an anti-fungal treatment.  This time, however, they had to report both their level of embarrassment and whether they thought the salesperson/robot was judging them.  The results revealed that people typically felt this was beyond the robot, and therefore this contributed to their lower levels of embarrassment.

This is despite the increasing ability for robots to be able to display emotions and to generally be humanized.  For this reason, when interviewed by the researchers, people appeared to prefer engaging with the robots in such embarrassing situations.

Of course, this removal of humans from embarrassing situations is not a new thing, with products like tampons and condoms now frequently available from vending machines precisely to avoid awkward human interactions.

The study did reveal, however, that people were concerned about the amount of data possibly collected by the robots, and how that data might be managed.  These concerns were relatively small, however, with many stating that they already give over so much data to digital devices that it was something they were generally comfortable with.

The results indicate that there might be a growing opportunity for service robots to extend out from areas such as hotels, airports, and restaurants and into a wider range of environments.