User Concerns Regarding Social Robots for Mood Regulation: A Case Study on the "Sunday Blues"

2025-06-30

AI Summary

This study investigates the acceptability of social robots in everyday emotional regulation—e.g., “Sunday blues.” Employing speculative design, we developed a video prototype of the conceptual robot Mora and conducted co-constructed storytelling sessions and in-depth interviews with 15 participants to elicit reflections on expectations, boundaries, and ethical dilemmas in human–robot affective interaction. Findings reveal ambivalent user attitudes toward robotic emotional intervention, highlighting critical tensions concerning the authenticity of empathic expression, temporal sensitivity of intervention, and attribution of responsibility. Based on these insights, we derive three core design principles for emotion-regulation robots: contextual adaptivity, transparency-by-default, and safeguarding human agency. The work contributes an empirically grounded, ethics-oriented design framework for affective human–robot interaction and extends the methodological application of speculative design into emotional well-being technologies.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Emotional Intelligence
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems

Abstract

While recent research highlights the potential of social robots to support mood regulation, little is known about how prospective users view their integration into everyday life. To explore this, we conducted an exploratory case study that used a speculative robot concept "Mora" to provoke reflection and facilitate meaningful discussion about using social robots to manage subtle, day-to-day emotional experiences. We focused on the "Sunday Blues," a common dip in mood that occurs at the end of the weekend, as a relatable context in which to explore individuals' insights. Using a video prototype and a co-constructing stories method, we engaged 15 participants in imagining interactions with Mora and discussing their expectations, doubts, and concerns. The study surfaced a range of nuanced reflections around the attributes of social robots like empathy, intervention effectiveness, and ethical boundaries, which we translated into design considerations for future research and development in human-robot interaction.

Problem

• Exploring user views on social robots for daily mood regulation
• Investigating concerns about robot empathy and ethical boundaries
• Designing robots to address subtle emotional experiences effectively

Innovation

• Used speculative robot concept 'Mora'
• Applied video prototype method
• Employed co-constructing stories technique