ArticleEthics and information technology2021
You've got a friend in me: sociable robots for older adults in an age of global pandemics.
Article in Ethics and information technology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ethical aspects of the use of social robots in caring for older people - a systematic qualitative review.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Pooled it
- Older Adults' Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Physical Information and Communication Technology in the Era of Ambient Assisted Living: A Systematic Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- It is Not Only About Staying Alive: A Living Systematic Review of Social Care Strategies for Older Adults in Residential Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of social work (London, England) · 2026Article
- Socially assistive robots and meaningful work: the case of aged care.Humanities & social sciences communications · 2025Article
- Sex robots and virtual reality sex: advantages and challenges.International journal of impotence research · 2024Review
- Beyond the hype: 'acceptable futures' for AI and robotic technologies in healthcare.AI & society · 2023Article
- Critical role of information and communication technology in nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.Journal of nursing management · 2022Article
- Control Matters in Elder Care Technology:: Evidence and Direction for Designing It In.DIS. Designing Interactive Systems (Conference) · 2022Article
- Children-Robot Friendship, Moral Agency, and Aristotelian Virtue Development.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2022Article
- Public Perception and Reception of Robotic Applications in Public Health Emergencies Based on a Questionnaire Survey Conducted during COVID-19.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Companionship and Sexual Issues in the Aging Population.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2021Article
- A literature survey of the robotic technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of manufacturing systems · 2021Article
- COVID-19 Era Social Isolation among Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Robots as intelligent assistants to face COVID-19 pandemic.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2021Article
- Robots Under COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Survey.IEEE access : practical innovations, open solutions · 2021Article
- Robot Care Ethics Between Autonomy and Vulnerability: Coupling Principles and Practices in Autonomous Systems for Care.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2021Article
- Roboethics principles and policies in Europe and North America.SN applied sciences · 2021Review
- It's Friendship, Jim, but Not as We Know It: A Degrees-of-Friendship View of Human-Robot Friendships.Minds and machines · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social isolation and loneliness are ongoing threats to health made worse by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. During the pandemic, half the globe's population have been placed under strict physical distancing orders and many long-term care facilities serving older adults went into lockdown mode, restricting access to all visitors, including family members. Before the pandemic emerged, a 2020 National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report warned of the underappreciated adverse effects of social isolation and loneliness on health, especially among older populations. Social isolation and loneliness predict all-cause mortality at rates that rival clinical risk factors, such as obesity and smoking; they are associated with greater incidence of psychological, cognitive, and physical morbidities. This paper sets forth a proposal to design robots to function as companions and friends for socially isolated and lonely older people during pandemic emergencies and in aging societies more generally. "The proposal" section presents and defends the proposal. The "Replies to objections" section answers objections based on coercive design, replacement of humans with robots, privacy incursions, and counterfeit companionship. The "Conclusion" section submits that sociable robots offer a promising avenue for addressing social isolation and loneliness during pandemics and hold promise for aging societies more broadly.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.