Social robots can be designed to support the facilitation of co-design sessions. Facilitators regulate group dynamics to promote effective collaboration among stakeholders. Group dynamics are sensitive to mood expressions: Positive mood expressions by the facilitator promote cooperation in the group, whereas negative expressions promote conflict. However, whether mood expressions by a social robot facilitator also influence human group dynamics is an open scientific and practical question.
To learn more, an experiment (N = 98) was conducted where small groups engaged in a co-design session led by a social robot facilitator. The robot displayed positive, neutral, or negative mood expressions throughout the session. The results showed that positive robot expressions, compared to neutral or negative expressions, increased perceived robot valence. Perceived robot valence increased cooperation and decreased conflict in the human groups.
These findings contribute novel insight into how social robots can be used to innovate how co-design is facilitated.
‘The ultimate goal is to provide people with the information, skills and tools that enable them to improve the quality of their daily lives.’
Simone van den Broek is a researcher within the Situated Art, Design and Technology research group, and a tutor for the Communication & Multimedia Design programme at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch.
The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology (SADT) focuses on the societal embedding and embodiment of knowledge production that art and design research enables. The conducted research contributes to a deeper understanding of technological developments and their impact on people, society, and the environment, and to the development of situated approaches in the creative sector and beyond. In doing so, it advances a wider acknowledgement of artistic and design research as a mode of knowledge production, one that is grounded in creativity and critical imagination as a way of generating insight into, and intervening in, societal transitions driven by technology.
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