The researchers from the University of Cambridge found that children would see the robot as a confidante and believed they wouldn’t get into trouble if they shared secrets with it.
The study, conducted with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13, used a child-sized humanoid robot administrator to carry out a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant.
Each child took part in a one-to-one 45-minute session with a Nao robot (pictured), a humanoid robot approximately 60cm tall.
Image credit: Dreamstime
During each session, the robot performed different tasks including asking open-ended questions about happy and sad memories over the last week. It also used the 'Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale' (RCADS) to determine...