Robot can reduce superior's dominance in group discussions with human social hierarchy

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Komura, Kazuki, Ozaki, Kumi, Yamada, Seiji
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Komura, Kazuki
Ozaki, Kumi
Yamada, Seiji
author_facet Komura, Kazuki
Ozaki, Kumi
Yamada, Seiji
contents This study investigated whether robotic agents that deal with social hierarchical relationships can reduce the dominance of superiors and equalize participation among participants in discussions with hierarchical structures. Thirty doctors and students having hierarchical relationship were gathered as participants, and an intervention experiment was conducted using a robot that can encourage participants to speak depending on social hierarchy. These were compared with strategies that intervened equally for all participants without considering hierarchy and with a no-action. The robots performed follow actions, showing backchanneling to speech, and encourage actions, prompting speech from members with less speaking time, on the basis of the hierarchical relationships among group members to equalize participation. The experimental results revealed that the robot's actions could potentially influence the speaking time among members, but it could not be conclusively stated that there were significant differences between the robot's action conditions. However, the results suggested that it might be possible to influence speaking time without decreasing the satisfaction of superiors. This indicates that in discussion scenarios where experienced superiors are likely to dominate, controlling the robot's backchanneling behavior could potentially suppress dominance and equalize participation among group members.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_08767
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robot can reduce superior's dominance in group discussions with human social hierarchy
Komura, Kazuki
Ozaki, Kumi
Yamada, Seiji
Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
This study investigated whether robotic agents that deal with social hierarchical relationships can reduce the dominance of superiors and equalize participation among participants in discussions with hierarchical structures. Thirty doctors and students having hierarchical relationship were gathered as participants, and an intervention experiment was conducted using a robot that can encourage participants to speak depending on social hierarchy. These were compared with strategies that intervened equally for all participants without considering hierarchy and with a no-action. The robots performed follow actions, showing backchanneling to speech, and encourage actions, prompting speech from members with less speaking time, on the basis of the hierarchical relationships among group members to equalize participation. The experimental results revealed that the robot's actions could potentially influence the speaking time among members, but it could not be conclusively stated that there were significant differences between the robot's action conditions. However, the results suggested that it might be possible to influence speaking time without decreasing the satisfaction of superiors. This indicates that in discussion scenarios where experienced superiors are likely to dominate, controlling the robot's backchanneling behavior could potentially suppress dominance and equalize participation among group members.
title Robot can reduce superior's dominance in group discussions with human social hierarchy
topic Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08767