By now, we’re all familiar with the storyline in which a person replaces relationships with a digital device. A recent study co-authored by Carolyn Yoon, professor of marketing at U-M, sought to see exactly how much a humanlike digital device might replace humans. Yoon and her colleagues hoped to find out how devices that replicate human characteristics — such as Roomba with a design that can resemble a smiley face, or Siri and Alexa that talk back to you — affect one’s need for social interaction. The researchers asked participants to describe a time they felt socially excluded, then had the respondents engage with their phone or a Roomba. The participants’ need to reconnect with people disappeared after doing so. But human interaction isn’t necessarily destined to be replaced by robots…at least, not yet. The research also showed that simply reminding people that the products were inanimate objects made the effect go away.
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