Trash-talking robot troll makes people worse at playing video games

Just like human opponents, robots can get on our nerves while playing video games. Aaron Roth of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and his colleagues found that the language a robot opponent used during a competitive game affected how well people played. Negative comments from the robot caused humans to play less rationally. The researchers used a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank Robotics. It is equipped with cameras and microphones and can speak and move.