Social Gaze Differs Between Humans and Androids
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19480910 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Pasqualette (0000-0002-1075-1647, University of Bremen), Marcel Heisler (0009-0004-7982-1000, Stuttgart Media University), Christian Becker-Asano (0000-0002-9946-0458, Stuttgart Media University), Louisa Kulke (0000-0002-9696-8619, University of Bremen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Social Robotics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1875-4791 • E-ISSN: 1875-4805 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12369-026-01399-7 |
| OpenAlex | W7162532695 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
People usually inhibit gaze to other strangers in the same room, but openly look at videos of the same strangers. Hence, social context guides human gaze behavior to others according to predominant social rules. The presence of robot androids is slowly increasing as they are employed in diverse sectors of the life, such as healthcare and service. Therefore, we investigated whether human social rules apply to android robots, specifically, the rule of avoiding to stare at strangers. Thirty-six adult participants’ gaze was measured in a waiting room using a mobile eye-tracker. Participants were divided into three conditions differing in who was present in the waiting room: (1) Android Andrea physically present (Android-Live), (2) a video of the Android played on a PC monitor (Android-Video), or (3) a real human was present (Human-Live). While participants rarely looked at the live human, abiding by the social rule not to stare at strangers, they looked significantly more at the live android and the video. This indicates that social inhibition of gaze is applied to humans, but not to android robots. Participants also completely ignored social conventions towards the robot by walking towards and staring at it. This suggests that overall human social rules are not applied to android robots
Android (operating system) · Gaze · Human–robot interaction · Humanoid robot · Social environment · Social relation · Social robot · Staring · Action Observation and Synchronization · Gaze Tracking and Assistive Technology · Social Robot Interaction and HRI
Performance
On seeing human
I saw it on YouTube! How online videos shape perceptions of mind, morality, and fears about robots
Human Preferences for Robot Eye Gaze in Human-to-Robot Handovers
Humans and humanoid social robots in communication contexts
Cognitive Impact of Anthropomorphized Robot Gaze
Anthropomorphism
A Taxonomy to Structure and Analyze Human–Robot Interaction
The Uncanny in the Wild. Analysis of Unscripted Human–Android Interaction in the Field
The Social Perception of Humanoid and Non-Humanoid Robots
The Benefits of Interactions with Physically Present Robots over Video-Displayed Agents
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |