Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents

In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people’s spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. P...

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Autores principales:	Giulia Perugia, Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann, Isabelle Hupont, Giovanna Varni, Mohamed Chetouani, Christopher Edward Peters, Ginevra Castellano
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	human-robot interaction human-agent interaction affective computing facial mimicry anthropomorphism uncanny valley Mechanical engineering and machinery TJ1-1570 Electronic computers. Computer science QA75.5-76.95
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b22e2536d67143998ef822518e852186
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b22e2536d67143998ef822518e8521862021-11-17T04:48:50ZDoes the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents2296-914410.3389/frobt.2021.699090https://doaj.org/article/b22e2536d67143998ef822518e8521862021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.699090/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2296-9144In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people’s spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of humanlikeness (between-subject variable: humanlike, characterlike, or morph facial texture of the artificial agents) and observed the facial expressions displayed by three artificial agents differing in embodiment (within-subject variable: video-recorded robot, physical robot, and virtual agent) and a human (control). To study both spontaneous and instructed facial mimicry, we divided the experimental sessions into two phases. In the first phase, we asked participants to observe and recognize the emotions displayed by the agents. In the second phase, we asked them to look at the agents’ facial expressions, replicate their dynamics as closely as possible, and then identify the observed emotions. In both cases, we assessed participants’ facial expressions with an automated Action Unit (AU) intensity detector. Contrary to our hypotheses, our results disclose that the agent that was perceived as the least uncanny, and most anthropomorphic, likable, and co-present, was the one spontaneously mimicked the least. Moreover, they show that instructed facial mimicry negatively predicts spontaneous facial mimicry. Further exploratory analyses revealed that spontaneous facial mimicry appeared when participants were less certain of the emotion they recognized. Hence, we postulate that an emotion recognition goal can flip the social value of facial mimicry as it transforms a likable artificial agent into a distractor. Further work is needed to corroborate this hypothesis. Nevertheless, our findings shed light on the functioning of human-agent and human-robot mimicry in emotion recognition tasks and help us to unravel the relationship between facial mimicry, liking, and rapport.Giulia PerugiaGiulia PerugiaMaike Paetzel-PrüsmannIsabelle HupontIsabelle HupontGiovanna VarniMohamed ChetouaniChristopher Edward PetersGinevra CastellanoFrontiers Media S.A.articlehuman-robot interactionhuman-agent interactionaffective computingfacial mimicryanthropomorphismuncanny valleyMechanical engineering and machineryTJ1-1570Electronic computers. Computer scienceQA75.5-76.95ENFrontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol 8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	human-robot interaction human-agent interaction affective computing facial mimicry anthropomorphism uncanny valley Mechanical engineering and machinery TJ1-1570 Electronic computers. Computer science QA75.5-76.95
spellingShingle	human-robot interaction human-agent interaction affective computing facial mimicry anthropomorphism uncanny valley Mechanical engineering and machinery TJ1-1570 Electronic computers. Computer science QA75.5-76.95 Giulia Perugia Giulia Perugia Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann Isabelle Hupont Isabelle Hupont Giovanna Varni Mohamed Chetouani Christopher Edward Peters Ginevra Castellano Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
description	In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people’s spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of humanlikeness (between-subject variable: humanlike, characterlike, or morph facial texture of the artificial agents) and observed the facial expressions displayed by three artificial agents differing in embodiment (within-subject variable: video-recorded robot, physical robot, and virtual agent) and a human (control). To study both spontaneous and instructed facial mimicry, we divided the experimental sessions into two phases. In the first phase, we asked participants to observe and recognize the emotions displayed by the agents. In the second phase, we asked them to look at the agents’ facial expressions, replicate their dynamics as closely as possible, and then identify the observed emotions. In both cases, we assessed participants’ facial expressions with an automated Action Unit (AU) intensity detector. Contrary to our hypotheses, our results disclose that the agent that was perceived as the least uncanny, and most anthropomorphic, likable, and co-present, was the one spontaneously mimicked the least. Moreover, they show that instructed facial mimicry negatively predicts spontaneous facial mimicry. Further exploratory analyses revealed that spontaneous facial mimicry appeared when participants were less certain of the emotion they recognized. Hence, we postulate that an emotion recognition goal can flip the social value of facial mimicry as it transforms a likable artificial agent into a distractor. Further work is needed to corroborate this hypothesis. Nevertheless, our findings shed light on the functioning of human-agent and human-robot mimicry in emotion recognition tasks and help us to unravel the relationship between facial mimicry, liking, and rapport.
format	article
author	Giulia Perugia Giulia Perugia Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann Isabelle Hupont Isabelle Hupont Giovanna Varni Mohamed Chetouani Christopher Edward Peters Ginevra Castellano
author_facet	Giulia Perugia Giulia Perugia Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann Isabelle Hupont Isabelle Hupont Giovanna Varni Mohamed Chetouani Christopher Edward Peters Ginevra Castellano
author_sort	Giulia Perugia
title	Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
title_short	Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
title_full	Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
title_fullStr	Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
title_full_unstemmed	Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents
title_sort	does the goal matter? emotion recognition tasks can change the social value of facial mimicry towards artificial agents
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b22e2536d67143998ef822518e852186
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Does the Goal Matter? Emotion Recognition Tasks Can Change the Social Value of Facial Mimicry Towards Artificial Agents

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