{"id":440135,"date":"2023-03-15T12:04:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?post_type=selected&p=440135"},"modified":"2023-03-15T12:04:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:04:36","slug":"robots-can-improve-mental-wellbeing-at-work-as-long-as-they-look-right","status":"publish","type":"selected","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/selected\/robots-can-improve-mental-wellbeing-at-work-as-long-as-they-look-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Robots can improve mental wellbeing at work \u2013 as long as they look right"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Robots can be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace \u2013 but perception of their effectiveness depends in large part on what the robot looks like, says the University of Cambridge in a press release<\/a>. Researchers conducted a study in a tech consultancy firm using two robot wellbeing coaches, where 26 employees participated in weekly robot-led wellbeing sessions for four weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the robots had identical voices, facial expressions, and scripts for the sessions, the physical appearance of the robot affected how participants interacted with it. Participants who did their wellbeing exercises with a toy-like robot said that they felt more of a connection with their \u2018coach\u2019 than participants who worked with a humanoid-like robot. The researchers say that perception of robots is affected by popular culture, where the only limit on what robots can do is the imagination. When faced with a robot in the real world however, it often does not live up to expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the toy-like robot looks simpler, participants may have had lower expectations and ended up finding the robot easier to talk and connect with. Participants who worked with the humanoid robot found that their expectations didn\u2019t match reality, since the robot was not capable of having interactive conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
The intelligent home: exploring the capabilities of robots in everyday life<\/div>
With the advancements in artificial intelligence, we have become accustomed to machines handling certain tasks such as answering support chat.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

The real world<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The World Health Organization recommends that employers take action to promote and protect mental wellbeing at work, but the implementation of wellbeing practices is often limited by a lack of resources and personnel. Robots have shown some early promise for helping address this gap, but most studies on robots and wellbeing have been conducted in a laboratory setting. \u201cWe wanted to take the robots out of the lab and study how they might be useful in the real world,\u201d said first author Dr Micol Spitale, from Cambridge\u2019s Department of Computer Science and Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying things out loud<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe robot can serve as a physical reminder to commit to the practice of wellbeing exercises,\u201d said Professor Hatice Gunes, who led the research. \u201cAnd just saying things out loud, even to a robot, can be helpful when you\u2019re trying to improve mental wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team is now working to enhance the robot coaches\u2019 responsiveness during coaching practices and interactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1780,"featured_media":495242,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[8553],"tags":[41579,80225,5876,70830],"location":[55977],"internal_archives":[],"class_list":["post-440135","selected","type-selected","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-humanoid","tag-mental-wellbeing","tag-robot-en","tag-robots-2","location-united-kingdom"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CES-experts-behind-innovative-2_main2.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/elckevels\/","display_name":"Elcke Vels"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on March 15, 2023","modified":"Updated on March 15, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on March 15, 2023 12:04 pm","modified":"Updated on March 15, 2023 12:04 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"category":{"linked":["Digital<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Digital<\/span>"],"slug":"category","name":"Categories"},"post_tag":{"linked":["Humanoid<\/a>","mental wellbeing<\/a>","robot<\/a>","robots<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Humanoid<\/span>","mental wellbeing<\/span>","robot<\/span>","robots<\/span>"],"slug":"post_tag","name":"Tags"},"language":{"linked":["EN<\/a>"],"unlinked":["EN<\/span>"],"slug":"language","name":"Tags"},"post_translations":{"linked":["pll_6411a60f8f1d0<\/a>"],"unlinked":["pll_6411a60f8f1d0<\/span>"],"slug":"post_translations","name":""},"location":{"linked":["United Kingdom<\/a>"],"unlinked":["United Kingdom<\/span>"],"slug":"location","name":"Locations"},"internal_archives":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"internal_archives","name":"Internal Archives"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected\/440135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/selected"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440135"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=440135"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=440135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}