Being watched by a cranky robot might help you focus
Being watched by a cranky robot might help you focus
By Frankie Schembri Aug. 15, 2018 , 2:00 PM
Do humanlike robots give you the heebie-jeebies? You’re
far from alone. But according to a new study, this wariness could be
beneficial, improving your focus on the task at hand.
As humanoid bots are becoming more common in our
day-to-day lives, scientists want to understand how their mere presence affects
our thinking and behavior.
Researchers gave 58 people a common test for measuring
focus, in which they were shown a series of words printed in different colors
and were asked to identify the color, ignoring the word itself. How quickly
they responded determined their score. Subjects took the test twice—first
alone, and then with a new set of words while a humanlike robot stood 1.5
meters away and “watched” them for 60% of the task.
Before the test, subjects acquainted themselves with the
robot, asking it a series of prewritten questions. The robot was programmed to
respond with either friendly, positive answers, or abrasive, negative ones.
Subjects exposed to the “bad” robot finished the test
faster than when they were alone, the researchers report today in Science
Advances. However, the group that interacted with the “good” robot didn’t show
any increase in speed.
That might be because people in the presence of the
cranky robot have a raised state of alertness that improves their focus, the
researchers say. Previous studies have shown the same effect with judgmental
humans—this is the first study to examine the phenomenon with robots.
So the next time a robot makes you a little nervous,
don’t fret—it might be a good time to cross some things off your to-do list.
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