The way we touch objects depends not only on their features 1 but also on our goals 2. Haptic exploration can also be modulated by other senses. Using iCube, a sensorized cube that measures its orientation in space as well as the location of the contacts on its faces, we have been studying how vision influence haptic exploration. Our first results show that vision promotes a more effective haptic exploration than when sight is not available 2,3. However, the mechanisms underlying this modulation are not yet fully understood. Moreover, we aim at investigating how visuo-haptic exploration is influenced by other cognitive variables (e.g. spatial ability) and social context.

Ref.

• Sciutti, A., Damonte, F., Alloisio, M., and Sandini, G. (2019). Visuo-Haptic Exploration for Multimodal Memory. Front. Integr. Neurosci. 13, 15.
• Sciutti, A., and Sandini, G. (2019). The role of object motion in visuo-haptic exploration during development. 2019 Jt. IEEE 9th Int. Conf. Dev. Learn. Epigenetic Robot. ICDL-EpiRob 2019, 123–128.

Human partners are very effective at coordinating in space and time. Such ability is particular remarkable considering that visual perception of space is a complex inferential process, which is affected by individual prior experience (i.e.. the history of previous stimuli). As a result, two partners might perceive differently the same stimulus. Yet, they find a way to align their perception, as demonstrated by the high degree of coordination observed in sports or even in everyday gestures as shaking hands. Robots would need a similar ability to align with their partner's perception. We used the humanoid robot iCub to investigate how the inferential mechanism supporting visual perception operates during social interaction.  Our first results show that visual perception is different when interacting with a social agent, relying significantly less on stimulus history. This result suggests that the brain changes optimization strategies during interaction and lay the foundations to design human aware robot visual perception. 
 

Ref.

• Mazzola, C., Aroyo, A. M., Rea, F., & Sciutti, A. (2020, March). Interacting with a social robot affects visual perception of space. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 549-557).
   

When investigating the interaction mechanisms between two agents, it is important to assess how such interactions might change the relationship and rapport between the two and to study the implications that these dynamics might have on society.
Within this context, we study whether and how a rapport of trust toward a robot is built while completing a game, and if such trust can be exploited in the field of social engineering – i.e., pushing the interacting partners to do something they would not have done. 
Our findings suggest that even a relatively short in-game interaction is sufficient to significantly increase trust and rapport toward the robot. These results highlight the opportunities and risks of establishing interaction with a robot. 
From the robotic perspective, we evaluated whether it is possible for a robot to understand if the partners are trustworthy or they are lying. To do so, a lie detection system based on implicit behavioral measures (as eye movements, pupil dilation and eloquence) and personality traits was developed and tested in an interrogation-like and a game-like scenario.

Ref.

• Aroyo, A. M., Rea, F., Sandini, G., & Sciutti, A. (2018). Trust and social engineering in human robot interaction: Will a robot make you disclose sensitive information, conform to its recommendations or gamble?. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 3(4), 3701-3708

• Aroyo, A. M., Kyohei, T., Koyama, T., Takahashi, H., Rea, F., Sciutti, A., ... & Sandini, G. (2018, August). Will people morally crack under the authority of a famous wicked robot?. In 2018 27th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication (RO-MAN) (pp. 35-42). IEEE.

Reciprocity is a pervasive social norm sustaining human cooperation. Indeed, we are more willing to help others if they have helped us in the past. Does this principle apply also in the exchange of information between individuals? Are we more prone to change idea in favor of someone that has taken into consideration our opinions in the recent past? Disclosing this important component of human social behavior (i.e., reciprocity of social influence) would have crucial implications in the understanding of how collective knowledge is shared and accumulated within human societies and organizations.

We investigate the theme of reciprocity of social influence though interactive lab experiments. We also study the developmental trajectories of reciprocal social influence by exploring children’s reciprocal social influence during child-adult interaction, to understand when and how social dynamics emerge and start to influence learning and interactive behavior during childhood. Furthermore, we study if these phenomena emerge during interaction with humanoid social robots, with the final aim of designing robots able to act as reliable assistive and collaborative partners in our society.

Our findings that humans do reciprocate social influence while interacting with their peers and even in 10-year-old children during interaction with adults. Interestingly, reciprocity of social influence emerges also during interaction with humanoid social robots: this result stresses the importance of a bidirectional and “reciprocal” view of human-robot interaction that does not focus exclusively on robots’ appearance and capabilities but also on the relational dynamics intervening during interaction.

Ref.

• Zonca, J., Folsø, A., & Sciutti, A. (2021). Dynamic modulation of social influence by indirect reciprocity. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-14. 10.1038/s41598-021-90656-y

• Zonca, J., Folsø, A., & Sciutti, A. (2021). I'm not a little kid anymore! Reciprocal social influence in child–adult interaction. Royal Society Open Science, 8(8), 202124. 10.1098/rsos.202124

• Zonca, J., Folsø, A., & Sciutti, A. (2021). The role of reciprocity in human-robot social influence. iScience, 24(12), 103424. 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103424