Who will you imitate? Studying reciprocal influence in children-robot groups during an imitation game.

ABSTRACT: This work aims to advance the understanding of group dynamics in robot-child interactions, focusing on whether, during a motor-imitation task led by a Nao robot, children might be influenced in their action executions by other group members - human or robotic. After testing eighteen groups of four children and teenagers, our findings indicate that participants tend to disregard the robot when it performs atypical gestures, preferring instead to imitate the actions of a human peer. Moreover, we found evidence that, in this scenario, assigning a leadership role to the robot does not, by itself, guarantee compliance from human group members; broader group dynamics must also be taken into account. Further results show that participants are significantly more likely to imitate the robot's actio

SUBMITTER: Pusceddu G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11996666 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature