WHEN EXPRESSIVE HUMANOID ROBOTS MESS UP, PEOPLE'S BRAINS TRIGGER A TRUST-WITHDRAWAL RESPONSE

Summary from the TLDR Hardware newsletter

Researchers found that when an expressive, animated humanoid robot made a social error, participants' brains showed coordinated activity linked to rising oxytocin, which predicted falling trust and less influence over their choices, an effect absent when the robot was stationary and expressionless. It undercuts the common design assumption that making robots more lifelike and expressive automatically earns more trust, suggesting expressiveness can backfire when the robot doesn't reliably deliver on the social behavior it signals.