Loneliness makes the heart grow fonder (of robots) — On the effects of loneliness on psychological anthropomorphism
Abstract
Sociality motivation represents an essential driving force for human behavior and well-being. If the need for affiliation is not satisfied and social interaction partners are unavailable, people might use an alternative strategy: Nonhuman entities, such as pets or religious deities are humanized and turned into social agents. We tested this notion in the context of social robotics and investigated whether activating feelings of loneliness would affect perceptions of anthropomorphism. Results showed that lonely people anthropomorphized the robot FloBi more than participants in the control group. Thus, importantly, users' motivational states need to be considered in the context of human-robot interaction (HRI) as they clearly affect judgments of the robotic interaction partner.
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Loneliness can increase the tendency to anthropomorphize, and it may be an important link between observed associations between loneliness and LLM-CB use.
“Because loneliness can increase the tendency to anthropomorphize147, it may be an important link between observed associations between loneliness and LLM-CB use (e.g., see Fig. 2).”
From A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots (2026) · cites this paper as [147]
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Self-citationEinstellungen gegenüber sozialen Robotern
Stapels, J. G., & Eyssel, F. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-31114-8_12 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationExploring how harming and helping behaviors drive prediction and explanation during anthropomorphism
Harris, L. T., van Etten, N., & Giménez‐Fernández, T. (2020) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2020.1799859 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“The final motive of belonging argues that a perceiver will see human beings in agents that are not human in a bid to form social connections when the perceiver is socially isolated (Eyssel & Reich, 2013).”
BackgroundBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.011 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.010 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.009 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationIsolated Circuits: Human Experience and Robot Design for the Future of Loneliness
Dwyer, L. J. (2024) · doi:10.32920/26883778.v1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Bartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.003
Self-citationPark, N., Kim, Y., Jang, E., Lee, J., & Choi, E.-J. (2021) · Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies · doi:10.20879/kjjcs.2021.65.5.010
Bartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.004
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.007
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.012
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.005
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.008
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.014
Self-citationBartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Šabanović, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108676649.013
Self-citationLoneliness During COVID-19 Influences Mind and Likeability Ratings in the Uncanny Valley
Abubshait, A., Xie, Y., Lin, J.-K., Toma, M., & Wiese, E. (2022) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-24670-8_23
Reich-Stiebert, N. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-40079-8_8
Tanrıkulu, E., & Dörtyol, İ. T. (2023) · Qualitative Research Journal · doi:10.1108/qrj-05-2023-0070
An Introduction to the Law, Policy, and Regulation for Human–Robot Interaction
Barfield, W., Weng, Y.-H., & Pagallo, U. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009386708.003
Sound’s Influences on Perceptions of Anthropomorphism and Animacy in Interfaces
Collins, K., Murad, M., & Manji, A. (2025) · Audio Mostly Conference (AM) · doi:10.1145/3771594.3771598
“Combined with interactive behaviors, such as responsiveness to user input, these cues have been shown to significantly improve task performance [16].”
Ayaz, F. O., & Yasin, G. (2025) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-4267-2.ch014
Who am I talking to?: Memory of Chatbots and Personalized Chat Interaction
Ergül, E., EYREK, A., & GÜREGEN, E. P. (2025) · Akdeniz Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi · doi:10.31123/akil.1709303 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Minter, E., Tankard, R., Norman, O., & Grant, J. B. (2026) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3776734.3794379
- Authors
- Eyssel, F., & Reich, N.
- Affiliations
- Bielefeld University (DE)
- ORCID
- Eyssel, Friederike
- Venue
- 2013 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2013-03
- Pages
- 121-122
- OpenAlex
- W4250223980
- Semantic Scholar
- d0bf826cd2d0cfe729913bd465843343b0f83ebb
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 6.72
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- loneliness, anthropomorphism, social robots, human-robot interaction, need for affiliation, robot perception, motivational states
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