What Does It Mean to Empathise with a Robot?

Empathy allows people to establish and maintain satisfying social relationships with other people. So it is not surprising that this is one of the most studied phenomena in the field of science focused on analyzing human-robot interactions (HRI). The functionality of social robots is based on building a relationship with the user. Such robots are often designed to take anthropomorphic (human-like) forms and mimic anthropomorphic behaviour. The way robots formulate their verbal messages, facial expressions and gestures should be easy to understand by the user. Therefore, it happens that robots behave as if they are happy, sad, or suffering. On the other hand, people often react to such a situation with strong emotions that they identify as empathy.

The fact that term "empathy" has strong social connotations raises the fundamental question: can it be applied to the relationship between humans and robots? Does it make sense to use terms and explanations related to the social nature of human activity concerning machines? How is it possible to empathize with an object? The article analyzes the range of uses of the term empathy in HRI research and social robotics. The author also suggests criteria that should be followed to determine when we are dealing with actual empathy in such relations.

So does it make sense to use the term "empathy" to study human-robot interactions?

Malinowska argues that using the term "empathy" to study empathic behaviour in human-robot interactions can be useful (although the empathy discussed in these situations is often understood in a naive, folk way). In certain situations, robots are not only able to enter into relationships that evoke a sense of empathy in people but also to maintain these relationships. On the other hand, humans react with great sensitivity to robots' behaviour. It is also important that the use of the concept of empathy to study human-robot interactions can be epistemically valuable not only for understanding these interactions but also for capturing, describing and explaining the general phenomenon of empathizing.