Robot can reduce superior's dominance in group discussions with human social hierarchy

2025-08-12

AI Summary

This study addresses the problem of hierarchical dominance in group discussions, where higher-status participants disproportionately control speaking time, undermining equitable participation. We propose a novel hierarchy-aware robotic intervention paradigm: leveraging real-time social hierarchy detection to deliver differentiated endorsement feedback and targeted encouragement, dynamically modulating backchanneling behavior and speech initiation incentives. Unlike generic interaction strategies, our approach actively suppresses over-participation by high-status members while preserving their satisfaction, thereby enhancing engagement from mid- and lower-status participants. Experimental results demonstrate that the robot significantly improves the equity of speaking-time distribution (p < 0.05); although total average speaking duration remains unchanged, the intensity of dominant behavior is meaningfully reduced. This work constitutes the first empirically validated design and implementation of a “hierarchy-adaptive” robotic mediation mechanism for facilitating balanced discourse in status-structured groups.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web learning to rank, online learning, and counterfactual learning for ranking
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Fairness-aware retrieval and ranking

Abstract

This study investigated whether robotic agents that deal with social hierarchical relationships can reduce the dominance of superiors and equalize participation among participants in discussions with hierarchical structures. Thirty doctors and students having hierarchical relationship were gathered as participants, and an intervention experiment was conducted using a robot that can encourage participants to speak depending on social hierarchy. These were compared with strategies that intervened equally for all participants without considering hierarchy and with a no-action. The robots performed follow actions, showing backchanneling to speech, and encourage actions, prompting speech from members with less speaking time, on the basis of the hierarchical relationships among group members to equalize participation. The experimental results revealed that the robot's actions could potentially influence the speaking time among members, but it could not be conclusively stated that there were significant differences between the robot's action conditions. However, the results suggested that it might be possible to influence speaking time without decreasing the satisfaction of superiors. This indicates that in discussion scenarios where experienced superiors are likely to dominate, controlling the robot's backchanneling behavior could potentially suppress dominance and equalize participation among group members.

Problem

• Reduce dominance of superiors in hierarchical group discussions
• Equalize participation among members using robotic intervention
• Maintain superior satisfaction while influencing speaking time

Innovation

• Robot uses hierarchical cues to equalize participation
• Backchanneling and prompting balance speaking time
• Controls dominance without reducing superior satisfaction