Ideal Warrior and Robot Relations: Stress and Empathy's Role in Human-Robot Teaming

The battlefield of the future will look very different than the battlefields of the past. Automated technologies are finding themselves more and more integrated into every aspect of the fight. As technology continues to advance, the United States Military must consider what a human-machine team will look like and how an optimal relationship between the two assets can be formed, especially under the stressful conditions that often characterize military contexts. For a human-machine team in a military context to work at maximum efficiency, an ideal level of empathy towards an automated teammate must be obtained. The goal of this study is to determine the effect stress can have on an individual's empathetic reaction toward a Pepper robot. Twenty-eight participants interacted with a Pepper robot either under stress or not. Empathy toward the robot was measured through subjective assessments as well as by participant decisions to continue interacting with Pepper even though doing so would harm the robot. Although not conclusive, the results suggest an interaction between participant gender and stress on empathy toward the Pepper robot. Women showed more empathy toward Pepper under higher levels of stress than lower levels of stress. However, the opposite was true for men. Men showed less empathy toward Pepper under higher levels of stress. The results of this study could help to inform military training and robot design.