ArticleScientific reports2020
Touching the social robot PARO reduces pain perception and salivary oxytocin levels.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Speech-touch integration for affective human-robot interaction: a scoping review.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of a Social Robot on Hospitalized Children, Caregivers, and Health Care Staff: Exploratory Observational Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- Evaluating Dental Pain in Diverse Conditions: Findings From Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire Study.International dental journal · 2025Article
- Human-Robot Interaction and Social Robot: The Emerging Field of Healthcare Robotics and Current and Future Perspectives for Spinal Care.Neurospine · 2024Article
- Semi-autonomous touch method merging robot's autonomous touch and user-operated touch for improving user experience in robot touch.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The proteus effect on human pain perception through avatar muscularity and gender factors.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Effect of partner presence on emotion regulation during parent-child interactions.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Propensity to trust shapes perceptions of comforting touch between trustworthy human and robot partners.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Embodied, visible, and courteous: exploring robotic social touch with virtual idols.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2024Article
- Advancing healthcare through mobile collaboration: a survey of intelligent nursing robots research.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- Higher oxytocin concentrations occur in subjects who build affiliative relationships with companion robots.iScience · 2023Article
- Touching a Mechanical Body: The Role of Anthropomorphic Framing in Physiological Arousal When Touching a Robot.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The use of a companion robot to improve depression symptoms in a community-dwelling older adult during the coronavirus disease 2019 state of emergency.Fujita medical journal · 2023Article
- Delivery of pleasant stroke touch via robot in older adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Oxytocin levels and self-reported anxiety during interactions between humans and cows.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- A wearable soft robot that can alleviate the pain and fear of the wearer.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Weight Shift Movements of a Social Mediator Robot Make It Being Recognized as Serious and Suppress Anger, Revenge and Avoidance Motivation of the User.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2022Article
- Interaction Matters: The Effect of Touching the Social Robot PARO on Pain and Stress is Stronger When Turned ON vs. OFF.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human-human social touch improves mood and alleviates pain. No studies have so far tested the effect of human-robot emotional touch on experimentally induced pain ratings, on mood and on oxytocin levels in healthy young adults. Here, we assessed the effect of touching the robot PARO on pain perception, on mood and on salivary oxytocin levels, in 83 young adults. We measured their perceived pain, happiness state, and salivary oxytocin. For the 63 participants in the PARO group, pain was assessed in three conditions: Baseline, Touch (touching PARO) and No-Touch (PARO present). The control group (20 participants) underwent the same measurements without ever encountering PARO. There was a decrease in pain ratings and in oxytocin levels and an increase in happiness ratings compared to baseline only in the PARO group. The Touch condition yielded a larger decrease in pain ratings compared to No-Touch. These effects correlated with the participants' positive perceptions of the interaction with PARO. Participants with higher perceived ability to communicate with PARO experienced a greater hypoalgesic effect when touching PARO. We show that human-robot social touch is effective in reducing pain ratings, improving mood and - surprisingly - reducing salivary oxytocin levels in adults.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.