The De Gruyter Handbook of Robots in Society and Culture

As social scientists, we are interested in people’s attributions of mind to social robots, as it has long been assumed and experimentally shown that when people observe robots, they intuitively ascribe mind and intentionality to them, just as they do to other humans and animals. In literature, different terms have been used to address mind perception, such as theory of mind, anthropomorphism, and so on. In this chapter, we review the most recent literature on mind perception when interacting with robots by taking into consideration the different terms used, the line of research, and the main results. Then, we describe some empirical research dealing with mind perception in the lifespan. The interaction between mind perception and the social acceptability of robots is discussed in light of the uncanny valley phenomenon. Finally, we identify the main criticisms of the literature on the topic. Future developments are also envisioned.