ReviewiScience2021
Are friends electric? The benefits and risks of human-robot relationships.
Review in iScience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Animal-assisted therapy on psychological and physical outcomes: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Journal of global health · 2026Pooled it
- Benefits and barriers associated with the use of smart home health technologies in the care of older persons: a systematic review.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Stability of value perception: minimal influence of framing on moral attributions to a humanoid robot.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- "That's me at my best": perspectives of older adults on involvement in technology research.Medical humanities · 2025Article
- Towards a critical posthumanist perspective on participatory design.Medical humanities · 2025Article
- Co-creating Humanistic AI AgeTech to Support Dynamic Care Ecosystems: A Preliminary Guiding Model.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Disability 4.0: bioethical considerations on the use of embodied artificial intelligence.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- The Estimation of Physical Distances Between Oneself and a Social Robot: Am I as Far From the Robot as It is from Me?Europe's journal of psychology · 2023Article
- Social robotics for children: an investigation of manufacturers' claims.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2023Article
- Older adult perspectives on emotion and stigma in social robots.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Exploring behaviours perceived as important for human-Dog bonding and their translation to a robotic platform.PloS one · 2022Article
- Children-Robot Friendship, Moral Agency, and Aristotelian Virtue Development.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2022Article
- User perspectives on emotionally aligned social robots for older adults and persons living with dementia.Journal of rehabilitation and assistive technologies engineeringArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Social robots that can interact and communicate with people are growing in popularity for use at home and in customer-service, education, and healthcare settings. Although growing evidence suggests that co-operative and emotionally aligned social robots could benefit users across the lifespan, controversy continues about the ethical implications of these devices and their potential harms. In this perspective, we explore this balance between benefit and risk through the lens of human-robot relationships. We review the definitions and purposes of social robots, explore their philosophical and psychological status, and relate research on human-human and human-animal relationships to the emerging literature on human-robot relationships. Advocating a relational rather than essentialist view, we consider the balance of benefits and harms that can arise from different types of relationship with social robots and conclude by considering the role of researchers in understanding the ethical and societal impacts of social robotics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.