Effect of Emotional Expression on the Impression of Older People Towards Baby-like Robots: Effect of Emotional Expression of Baby-like Robots on Older People

As the loneliness problem grows more severe among older people living in nursing homes, the use of baby-like robots as companions is becoming an option to relieve this problem. However, it remains unclear how baby-like behavior affects older people. This study investigates the effect of the emotional expression of baby-like robots on older people to realize a companion robot that relieves their loneliness. Through two experiments, we investigated older adults’ impressions of one or two robots that express different emotions. They rated their impressions of the robots by watching videos of one baby-like robot that vocalized different emotional sounds (crying, laughing, or babbling) in Experiment I and two baby-like robots that vocalized different combinations of emotional sounds in Experiment II. We found that the crying robot reduced their willingness and enjoyment to interact with the robot and suppressed the emotional effects of the other robot. Our findings can help improve the well-being of older adults, providing insight into how to support older adults using baby-like robots.