Robots can help boost workplace mental health, but their appearance makes a difference

Robots can make good workplace mental wellbeing coaches, new research has found, but their effectiveness depends on their appearance.

According to the study by researchers from the University of Cambridge, robot-led wellbeing sessions are a useful tool for boosting workplace mental health. However, the study revealed that the robots’ physical appearance affected how the participants interacted with it.

For the study, the Cambridge researchers introduced two different robot wellbeing coaches into a local tech consultancy, Cambridge Consultants. One of the robots looked like a human and the other looked more like a toy. Workers at the firm participated in weekly robot-led wellbeing sessions for around a month.

People who interacted with the toy-like robot had a greater sense of connection with their coach than those who had sessions with the humanoid robot.

The researchers believe that because the toy-like robot looked simpler, people found it easier to talk and connect with, which boosted their interactions.

While many organisations already have workplace mental health strategies, others find it difficult to implement wellbeing practices due to a lack of staff and resources. Robots could address this shortfall but, until now, their effectiveness has never been assessed in a real working environment.

"We wanted to take the robots out of the lab and study how they might be useful in the real world," said Dr Micol Spitale, the paper's first author.

Co-author Minja Axelsson added: "We interviewed different wellbeing coaches and then we programmed our robots to have a coach-like personality, with high openness and conscientiousness.

"The robots were programmed to have the same personality, the same facial expressions and the same voice, so the only difference between them was the physical robot form."

The results will be presented today (15 March) at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in Stockholm.

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Image by Wenwen Fan from Pixabay