Too Human To Be a Machine? Social robots, anthropomorphic appearance, and concerns on the negative impact of this technology on humans and their identity.

In this thesis I will talk about social robots, their appearance, and people’s concerns about potential negative impacts that social robotics technology could have on humans and their identity. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of why people fear social robots, and what the role of humanlike appearance is within this process. Social robots represent a new, fascinating technology. Research in social robotics not only develops new and better social robots but also tries to understand and prevent eventual problems that could arise when people and robots coexist. Moreover, the relations and reactions to social robots, especially those who highly resemble humans, is also an interesting topic from a social psychology point of view. Taking up professor Ishiguro’s words, developing androids opens up the question of “what is human?”. The study of psychological processes related to machines that imitate real persons allows us to know more about ourselves as human beings.