From Battery to Bonding: How Robot Self-Sacrifice Shapes Human Trust and Prosocial Behavior

In this study, we explore how robot self-sacrifice can influence human perceptions and behaviors toward robots. While traditional research in human-robot interaction (HRI) often addresses moral dilemmas, such as the trolley problem, our work examines more relatable scenarios where robots engage in self-sacrificial behavior, such as offering their own battery to charge a user's device instead of relying on external resources. Through an experiment with 30 participants, we found that robots demonstrating self-sacrifice significantly promoted prosocial behaviors compared to robots that did not. However, no significant differences were observed between the groups in terms of the perceptions of robots. These results highlight that while self-sacrificial behavior did not alter perceptions of the robot's social traits, it clearly influenced participants' willingness to engage in prosocial actions. This research underscores the potential of robots to foster prosocial behavior through self-sacrifice, offering valuable insights for designing robots that encourage a flourishing society in which humans and robots coexist.