Social Companions Research Articles

Trait Loneliness and Social Presence in Human-Human and Human-Robot Interaction

Social robots are a proposed solution to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Given the psychological complexity of experienced trait loneliness and its potential to reduce perceived social presence, an experiment using a social robot was conducted to examine how trait loneliness impacted perceived social co-presence, psychobehavioral interdependence, and subjective mutual presence in social robot interactions. Furthermore, we explored whether these effects differed from human-to-human interactions. Although trait loneliness only affected third order subjective copresence among the three social presence dimensions, individuals with higher trait loneliness were more likely to accept the robot as a social companion.

“AI Love You”: Linguistic Convergence in Human-Chatbot Relationship Development

Social chatbots are increasingly designed to offer companionship to humans to improve their psychological well-being. Can they develop social relationships with the technology? How are people influenced by chatbots? Studies testing whether humans will adapt their communication when interacting with a chatbot have provided somewhat mixed results. Applying Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), this study takes a longitudinal, quantitative approach to answer these questions. It employs natural language processing (NLP) techniques to compare the linguistic patterns in 29,885 conversations between human users and their social companion chatbot, Replika, scraped from Reddit. The results showed that people’s linguistic styles gradually converged with that of the chatbots. This convergence was positively related with the relationship development between the user and their Replika companion. These findings suggest that human behavior can be influenced by chabots through interaction and people can develop relationships with their technological companions.

Social robot – Jack of all trades?

AbstractBackgroundSocial robots have been used in different roles, for example, in caregiving, companionship, and as a therapy tool, in recent years – with growing tendency. Although we still know little about factors that influence robots’ acceptance, studies have shown that robots are possible social companions for humans that help overcome loneliness, among other use cases. Especially in the given situation of forced social isolation, social companions are needed. Thissocial gapmight be filled by robots. We hypothesized that loneliness and the need to belong increase acceptance of social robots.MethodsOne hundred forty participants were asked to fill out an online survey on social robots and their acceptance in society. Questions on robots, demographical factors, and external factors (lockdown length) were asked and personal traits were also assessed.Results and interpretationAs expected, among other findings, loneliness of participants was positively linked to robots’ acceptance. Nevertheless, need to belong was not. We conclude from these results that social robots are a possiblesocial instrumentto overcome loneliness and that interaction with a robot cannot replace belonging to a social group because robots lack needs that humans or animals have. Also, personality traits and demographic factors were linked to robots’ acceptance. This means that, even though there are generalizable connections between robots’ acceptance and factors as loneliness, personal traits are at least of similar importance.DiscussionOur results provide important new insights into relationships between humans and robots and their limitations. Robots can ease our loneliness but are not seen as human. Future research needs to investigate factors that influence perception and acceptance of robots. Future lab-based studies with realistic human–robot interactions will deepen our insights of human understanding, perception, and acceptance of robots.

The Review On The Role Of Social Companion In The Implementation Of Family Hope Program (PKH) In Darul Falah District, East Aceh During The Covid-19 Pandemic

AbstractThis research examines the implementation of the PKH Program, an overview of the role of PKH Social Assistants during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The research location is in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency. The research objective was to describe and analyze the implementation of the PKH Program in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency during the Covid-19 Pandemic and to describe and analyze the role of PKH Social Assistants in the PKH Program assisted areas during the Covid-19 Pandemic. In conducting this research the writer used a descriptive research method with a qualitative approach. The results of the study found that the role of PKH Social Assistants in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency in 2020 is a description of the implementation of the PKH Program in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency during the Covid-19 Pandemic. This activity is a daily activity carried out by PKH Social Assistants in order to cut off the spread of the Corona Virus in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency. In order to break the chain of spreading the Corona Virus in the community, PKH Social Assistants in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency is active in various Covid-19 volunteer activities in eleven villages in the Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency. Various activities carried out by PKH Social Assistants in Darul Falah District of East Aceh Regency in the field with KPM during the Covid-19 pandemic were carried out by following health protocols. Keywords: PKH Program, Role of Social Companion, Covid-19

Chatbots as Cognitive, Educational, Advisory & Coaching Systems

Chatbots are software applications assimilating human communication with the aim to raise adherence and engagement between human-systems interaction. Text messaging-based conversational agents (CAs) make an interesting use of natural language processing and improve by learning, allowing coherent two-way communication with humans, either oral or written as well as real-time decision-making. Chatbots serve as means of learning and teaching, as virtual assistants and social companions. Machine learning algorithms embedded into Chatbots simulate human cognition, including cognitive learning, decision making and adaptation to the environment. Thus, the future of artificial intelligence in Chatbots lies in the development of a global, reliable and sustainable ecosystem of knowledge, skills and values by bringing together all interested stakeholders, such as scientists, consumers, businesses and the state. Such effective customized/personalized learning frameworks depend on sophisticated conversational flows based on user models, which cluster user preferences and attributes in combination with learning analytics to induce end users’ personal skills, knowledge mastery, learning ability as well as professional development.

The deleterious effects of old social partners on Drosophila lifespan and stress resistance

Social interactions play important roles in the modulation of behavior, physiology, and, potentially, lifespan. Although longevity has been studied extensively in different model organisms, due to the complexity of social environments, the social modulation of aging remains poorly investigated. The present study used the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model to study lifespan and stress resistance under different social conditions. Our experiments first showed that social isolation increased fly lifespan, suggesting a potential deleterious effect of social companions. Furthermore, we exposed flies to different aged social partners and found that living with old animals significantly reduced lifespan and stress resistance in young animals. In contrast, living with young animals increased old animal lifespan, although the effects were less robust. Overall, our results suggest that while social interaction can influence fly health, specific social partners may have more pronounced effects than others. This study provides new evidence that different social environments have significant impacts on animal physiology and longevity.

Technology as a Social Companion? An Exploration of Individual and Product-Related Factors of Anthropomorphism

From chatbots that simulate human conversation to cleaning robots with anthropomorphic appearance, humanlike designed technologies become increasingly present in our society. A growing strand of research focuses on psychological factors and motivations influencing anthropomorphism, that is, the attribution of human characteristics to non-human agents and objects. For example, studies have shown that feeling lonely can come along with attributing anthropomorphic qualities to objects; others imply that anthropomorphism might influence individuals’ social needs in return. Such an interrelation could have great societal impact, if, for example, interacting with humanlike technology would reduce the need for interpersonal interaction. Yet, the interrelation between anthropomorphism and social needs has not been studied systematically and individual as well as situational preconditions of anthropomorphism have not been specified. The present research investigates the interrelation between anthropomorphism and social needs on the example of interacting with a smartphone and highlights possible preconditions by means of two experimental studies using a 2 × 2-between-subjects-design, varying social exclusion and anthropomorphism. Our first study ( N = 159) showed an overall positive correlation between the willingness to socialize and perceived anthropomorphism. Our second study ( N = 236) highlighted that this relationship is especially pronounced for individuals with a high tendency to anthropomorphize, given that the product supports a humanlike perception through its appearance and design cues. In sum, results support an interrelation between social needs and anthropomorphism but also stress individual and contextual strengthening factors. Limitations, theoretical, and practical implications are discussed.

Improving Visual Perception of Artificial Social Companions Using a Standardized Knowledge Representation in a Human-Machine Interaction Framework

Improving Visual Perception of Artificial Social Companions Using a Standardized Knowledge Representation in a Human-Machine Interaction Framework

Cognitive Phenotypic Plasticity: Environmental Enrichment Affects Learning but Not Executive Functions in a Teleost Fish, Poecilia reticulata.

Simple SummaryEnvironmental enrichment is extremely important for an individual’s neural, cognitive and behavioral development. Emerging animal models, such as teleost fish, may contribute to our understanding of enrichment-driven cognitive plasticity. We studied the cognitive consequences of living in enriched conditions in Poecilia reticulata. In particular, we compared subjects raised alone in a barren aquarium versus subjects exposed to enriched aquaria (with conspecifics, natural substrate, plants, and live prey) in three different cognitive tasks to measure learning, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Our results showed that guppies from the enriched aquaria learned a color discrimination faster compared to the subject raised in barren conditions. However, in the two remaining cognitive tasks, we found no effect from the treatment, suggesting that enrichment does not affect inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. This study reveals that enrichment-driven plasticity affects only specific cognitive abilities.Many aspects of animal cognition are plastically adjusted in response to the environment through individual experience. A remarkable example of this cognitive phenotypic plasticity is often observed when comparing individuals raised in a barren environment to individuals raised in an enriched environment. Evidence of enrichment-driven cognitive plasticity in teleost fish continues to grow, but it remains restricted to a few cognitive traits. The purpose of this study was to investigate how environmental enrichment affects multiple cognitive traits (learning, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control) in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. To reach this goal, we exposed new-born guppies to different treatments: an enrichment environment with social companions, natural substrate, vegetation, and live prey or a barren environment with none of the above. After a month of treatment, we tested the subjects in a battery of three cognitive tasks. Guppies from the enriched environment learned a color discrimination faster compared to guppies from the environment with no enrichments. We observed no difference between guppies of the two treatments in the cognitive flexibility task, requiring selection of a previously unrewarded stimulus, nor in the inhibitory control task, requiring the inhibition of the attack response toward live prey. Overall, the results indicated that environmental enrichment had an influence on guppies’ learning ability, but not on the remaining cognitive functions investigated.

The Link Between Environment, Age, and Health in a Large Cohort of Companion Dogs from the Dog Aging Project

Exposure to social environmental adversity strongly predicts health and survival in many species such as non-human primates, wild mammals, and humans. However, little is known about how the health and mortality effects of these social determinants vary across the lifespan. Using the companion dog, which serves as a powerful comparative model for human health and aging due to our shared biology and environment, we examined which components of the social environment impact health, and how the effects vary with age, in dogs. We first drew on detailed survey data from owners of 27,547 dogs from the Dog Aging Project and identified six factors that together explained 35% of the variation in dog’s social environment. These factors all predicted measures of health, disease, and mobility, when controlling for dog age and weight. Factors capturing measures of financial and household adversity were linked to poorer companion dog health, while factors associated with the social companions, like dogs and adults, were linked to better health. Interestingly, some of these effects differed across a dog’s lifespan: for instance, the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on disease instances was strongest in older dogs. Together, our findings point to similar links between adversity and health in companion dogs, and set up future work on the molecular and biological changes associated with environmental variation in order to identify ways to mitigate or even reverse the negative environmental effects.

Exploring Use of Digital Home Assistants for Older Adults: A Demonstration Project

Emerging digital home assistant technology has potential to support older adults in their homes. Voice-activated assistants can be used for entertainment, environmental control, physical activities, health management, and social engagement. However, many older adults have limited experience with these devices, which are not designed with them in mind. We conducted a demonstration project to explore how seven older adult assisted and independent living residents interacted with digital assistants over four months. We conducted monthly semi-structured telephone interviews and pre/post questionnaires. Participants desired to use their devices to communicate with others, and for a range of health activities, including nutrition tracking, medication management, and health information searching. However, numerous usability barriers emerged. Some participants perceived their device as a social companion. These findings indicate that older adults are willing to use digital assistants for various activities that may enhance independence, although instructional and training materials are needed to support their use.

The Link Between Environment, Age, and Health in a Large Cohort of Companion Dogs from the Dog Aging Project

Exposure to social environmental adversity strongly predicts health and survival in many species such as non-human primates, wild mammals, and humans. However, little is known about how the health and mortality effects of these social determinants vary across the lifespan. Using the companion dog, which serves as a powerful comparative model for human health and aging due to our shared biology and environment, we examined which components of the social environment impact health, and how the effects vary with age, in dogs. We first drew on detailed survey data from owners of 27,547 dogs from the Dog Aging Project and identified six factors that together explained 35% of the variation in dog’s social environment. These factors all predicted measures of health, disease, and mobility, when controlling for dog age and weight. Factors capturing measures of financial and household adversity were linked to poorer companion dog health, while factors associated with the social companions, like dogs and adults, were linked to better health. Interestingly, some of these effects differed across a dog’s lifespan: for instance, the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on disease instances was strongest in older dogs. Together, our findings point to similar links between adversity and health in companion dogs, and set up future work on the molecular and biological changes associated with environmental variation in order to identify ways to mitigate or even reverse the negative environmental effects.

Knowledge Engineering Framework for IoT Robotics Applied to Smart Healthcare and Emotional Well-Being.

Social companion robots are getting more attention to assist elderly people to stay independent at home and to decrease their social isolation. When developing solutions, one remaining challenge is to design the right applications that are usable by elderly people. For this purpose, co-creation methodologies involving multiple stakeholders and a multidisciplinary researcher team (e.g., elderly people, medical professionals, and computer scientists such as roboticists or IoT engineers) are designed within the ACCRA (Agile Co-Creation of Robots for Ageing) project. This paper will address this research question: How can Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) technology and co-creation methodologies help to design emotional-based robotic applications? This is supported by the ACCRA project that develops advanced social robots to support active and healthy ageing, co-created by various stakeholders such as ageing people and physicians. We demonstra this with three robots, Buddy, ASTRO, and RoboHon, used for daily life, mobility, and conversation. The three robots understand and convey emotions in real-time using the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence technologies (e.g., knowledge-based reasoning).

Effectiveness of Sembako Program Management for Poor Beneficiary Families (KPM) (Case Study in Banyumanik District of Semarang City)

This research aims to describe and analyze the effectiveness of Sembako program management in improving the welfare of KPM in Banyumanik District of Semarang City. The type of research used in this research is descriptive research with a qualitative approach. Informants in this study include: Social Companion of Bansos Pangan Banyumanik Subdistrict, e-Warong Administrator, Banyumanik Subdistrict Social Welfare Kasie and Family Beneficiaries of Sembako program. The conclusion of the study that all stages of the program aspects of management (planning, organizing, commanding, controlling and coordinating), there are weaknesses such as taking KKS mustinya KPM but often represented by the village, there is a KKS that is no longer active, e-warung owners sell higher prices. From the aspect of effectiveness (punctuality, goal accuracy and the accuracy of the program's objectives) have not been effective, it still occurs for example too many are involved, especially in the aspect of edication and socialization, taking KKS must be KPM but often represented by the village,. The existence of KPM that is no longer active, higher prices in e-warung burden the target program. Recommendation: Sembako program for poor beneficiaries (KPM) greatly helps the poor to improve welfare by improving weaknesses from management aspects and effectiveness. It is necessary to develop a sembako program model that is simple, understandable and can be implemented by poor people target programs.

Social Robots for Evaluating Attention State in Older Adults.

Sustained attention is essential for older adults to maintain an active lifestyle, and the deficiency of this function is often associated with health-related risks such as falling and frailty. The present study examined whether the well-established age-effect on reducing mind-wandering, the drift to internal thoughts that are seen to be detrimental to attentional control, could be replicated by using a robotic experimenter for older adults who are not as familiar with online technologies. A total of 28 younger and 22 older adults performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) by answering thought probes regarding their attention states and providing confidence ratings for their own task performances. The indices from the modified SART suggested a well-documented conservative response strategy endorsed by older adults, which were represented by slower responses and increased omission errors. Moreover, the slower responses and increased omissions were found to be associated with less self-reported mind-wandering, thus showing consistency with their higher subjective ratings of attentional control. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of constructing age-related cognitive profiles with attention evaluation instruction based on a social companion robot for older adults at home.

Calves are socially motivated

Most dairy calves are housed individually in the first weeks and sometimes months of their lives. Lack of social interaction can negatively impact feed intake, social skills, coping abilities, and cognitive performance, but the motivation of calves to seek companionship has seldom been investigated. In this study, 10 Holstein bull calves (Bos taurus; averaging 5.4 ± 2.6 d old upon entering the study) were housed individually in a central home pen with access to one pen on either side, each connected by a push gate. One side pen housed another calf of similar age and the same sex, and the second was otherwise identical in size and resources (feed and water) but without a social companion. Each time the test calf pushed open the gate to access a side pen, he would be left in it until the next feeding (approximately 0800 and 1600 h), at which time he was returned to the central home pen. After each successful pushing event, additional weight was added to the gate (initially a small amount, then incrementally higher). All calves but one pushed for the first time on d 1 of enrollment (within 9.4 ± 14.8 min of experimental start); the remaining calf pushed on d 3 of the test. Each calf was tested for 15 d and we recorded the maximum weight pushed for both side pens. Calves pushed a higher maximum weight (and pushed more frequently) for access to the pen with a social partner compared with the empty pen. We conclude that calves are socially motivated, even at a young age, and that calves can benefit from access to social contact.

Network Support and Negative Life Events Associated With Chronic Cardiometabolic Disease Outcomes

Stress from negative life events may be an important risk factor for chronic cardiometabolic conditions, which are increasingly prevalent among young adults. Support from personal networks is known to buffer stress from negative life events. Yet, evidence for these relationships among both young and older adults remains unclear. Longitudinal data came from the University of California, Berkeley Social Networks Study (2015-2018), which followed young (aged 21-30 years) and late middle-aged (aged 50-70 years) adults over 4 years. Weighted hybrid fixed and random effects models (completed in 2020) were used to examine the causal relationships among 4 negative life events, distinct forms of network support (e.g., social companionship, emergency help), and self-reported chronic cardiometabolic disease outcomes (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, or a heart condition). Among young adults, both the death of a close tie (average marginal effect=0.10, p<0.001) and financial difficulties (average marginal effect=0.07, p<0.05) were associated with a higher probability of chronic cardiometabolic outcomes. Higher numbers of confidants (average marginal effect= -0.03, p<0.01) and practical helpers (average marginal effect= -0.02, p<0.01) were associated with a lower probability of chronic cardiometabolic outcomes, whereas higher numbers of social companions were associated with a higher probability of having chronic cardiometabolic outcomes among young adults (average marginal effect=0.02, p<0.01). Negative life events may be important risk factors for chronic cardiometabolic disease outcomes, particularly among young adults. Although there is no evidence of network support mediating the effects of negative life events, increases in network support were directly associated with chronic cardiometabolic outcomes.

Strategies to encourage freestall use in dairy heifers

Dairy cattle can experience problems adjusting to freestalls when first introduced, resulting in a marked reduction in lying time and increased abnormal behaviors such as lying in the alley or lying backward in a stall. Our objective was to evaluate 2 strategies to ease the transition of heifers to freestalls: using an older, experienced heifer as a social model [experiment (Exp.) 1] or using brushes mounted in the stalls as an attractant (Exp. 2). In Exp. 1, 44 naïve heifers (129 ± 37 d of age, mean ± standard deviation) were assigned in pairs (n = 11 pairs/treatment) to either the control or social model (with an older heifer, 200 ± 24 d of age, as an experienced social companion) treatments. In Exp. 2, 52 naïve heifers (146 ± 9 d of age) were preassigned in pairs (n = 13 pairs/treatment) to either control or brush treatments. In both studies, heifers were initially housed in pens with a bedded pack (for 5 and 7 d in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively) before moving to pens in the same barn with sand-bedded freestalls. On d −2, 0, and 4 relative to the move to the freestalls, standing, perching (with the front hooves on the bedding and rear hooves in the alley), and lying (location: bedding vs. alley; direction in stall on d 0 and 4: forward or backward) were recorded at 5-min intervals. In addition, starting on d 0 relative to the move, latency to first lie down in a stall was recorded continuously. In both studies, time budgets did not differ between treatments. On the day heifers were moved, they spent less time lying relative to d −2 [Exp. 1: −1.8 h/d, standard error (SE): 0.4 h/d; Exp. 2: −3.0 h/d, SE: 0.3 h/d] and more time standing and perching. By d 4, lying and standing returned to d −2 baseline levels, although heifers continued to spend more time perching. When heifers moved to freestalls, no treatment differences were observed in the latency to lie down in a stall, but latencies differed between Exp. 1 (averaging approximately 3.8 h across treatments) and Exp. 2 (averaging 31.4 h across treatments). After moving to freestalls, the percentage of total lying time that heifers spent facing forward in a stall increased (Exp. 2: 53 vs. 77%, SE: 7%) or tended to (Exp. 1: 84 vs. 92%, SE: 3%) between d 0 and 4 of exposure, with no effect of treatment. Although lying behavior improved with days of exposure to freestalls, some heifers continued to lie down in the alley or backward in a stall, suggesting the need for additional work to ease the adjustment to freestall housing.

Non-Drinkers’ Experiences of Drinking Occasions: A Population-Based Study of Social Consequences of Abstaining from Alcohol

Background People should be able to quit or moderate their drinking without negative social consequences, but studies have shown how nondrinkers often face pressure and negative reactions. As previous research has mostly focused on youth, we conducted a population-level study of the ways adult nondrinkers encounter their drinking companions on drinking occasions and what kinds of reactions they perceive from their social environments. Method The data were based on the Finnish Drinking Habits Survey (FDHS), a general population survey of Finns aged 15–79 collected in 2016 (N = 2,285; 330 nondrinkers; response rate 60%). Characteristics of drinking occasions where nondrinkers participate (“non-drinking occasions”) were measured through self-reports of frequency, time, purpose, and social companion on those occasions. Nondrinkers’ experiences of non-drinking occasions and reactions from the social environment were measured by question batteries on social consequences. Results Compared with drinking occasions, non-drinking occasions occurred more often at family events at home than on late-night drinking occasions. Accordingly, nondrinkers reported relatively low levels of negative consequences, and the reported consequences were least frequent in the oldest age group. Nondrinkers reported mostly positive feedback from people around them, more often from family members than from peers. However, negative consequences were reported in all studied groups, most commonly among youth and former drinkers. Conclusions The study indicates that nondrinkers’ social environments may be more supportive than what has been suggested previously, yet coping mechanisms are required especially from youth and former drinkers. The positive social experiences of being a nondrinker should guide the promotion of moderate and non-drinking.

The Welfare of The Family Through Management and Communication Patterns of Social Companion

The Welfare of The Family Through Management and Communication Patterns of Social Companion