Concerns and Values in Human-Robot Interactions: A Focus on Social Robotics

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics are pushing robots from research laboratories into public spaces [60], healthcare facilities [51] and schools [11], as well as private homes. As robots start exhibiting nuanced, multifaceted behaviours, by inhabiting high-stakes environments where their actions have profound social and physical consequences, robots become more and more social agents [8, 2]. As such, they transcend their nature of complex tools and start to pose new ethical challenges, impacting the humans involved in immediate and long-term interactions. Human-robot interaction (HRI) researchers must anticipate and address these ethical concerns. This involves understanding the potential risks and benefits associated with robot interactions and striving to embed ethical principles and values into the design of robotic systems that align with societal norms and values. In social psychology, seminal works such as Schwartz's theory of basic human values [81] have pursued a categorisation of values.