Robot may furnish lesson in human trust - The Boston Globe

Robot may furnish lesson in human trust

Interactions could show the basis for harmony

With expressive eyebrows and transfixing blue eyes, a robot named Nexi is helping researchers understand how trust is developed. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff)

By Carolyn Y. Johnson

Globe Staff / July 5, 2010

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Scientists have long wondered how people decide, even after a brief interaction, whether or not to trust a person. What subtle cues are telegraphed in a handshake, a facial twitch, or a simple change in posture?

Now, to shed light on that age-old question, Boston-area scientists are turning to Nexi, a moonfaced robot with expressive eyebrows, dexterous mechanical hands, and a face that can flick from boredom to happiness.

By controlling how 4-foot-tall Nexi interacts with people, scientists have a new and powerful way to study the signals that allow people to trust one another, or not, within minutes of meeting.

“There should be some signal for trustworthiness that’s subtle and hard to find, but [it is] there,’’ said David DeSteno, a psychologist at Northeastern University and one leader of the experiment.

Nexi offers advantages over using a human participant because people give off subtle ges tures, or engage in unintentional mimicry, that can be hard to measure or control, and probably influence whether someone trusts them. Nexi has many of the expressive abilities of a person, but researchers can tightly

Monday, July 5, 2010