Call for Abstracts

Workshop on

Social Robots as a Means of Indirect Influence (SoRaMI 2022)

Florence, Italy --- December 13, 2022

Workshop @ICSR 2022 --- Conference website: https://www.icsr2022.it/



Important Dates

Abstract Due - November 21, 2022 ==> December 1, 2022

Notification of Acceptance – December 1, 2022 ==> December 5, 2022

Call for abstracts

We are interested in submissions of original research in social robotics, applied ethics, experimental philosophy, epistemology, legal issues concerning AI and robotics, or research from related fields, relevant to the topic of “Social Robots as a means of indirect influence”. The submissions, in the form of abstracts (min 800, max 1000 words, references excluded), should present original research works related with, but not limited to, one or more of the following topics of interest:

· (Experimental) Robo-ethics

· Robot Ethics

· Ethics of social robotics and HRI

· Experiments in social robotics and HRI

· Behavioral economics and Social Robotics

· Implementation of moral rules in (social) robots

· Social and affective human-robot interaction

· Nudge theory applied to social robots

· Persuasion theory applied to social robots

· Ethics of robot’s nudging

· Ethical persuasion in HRI


The workshop aims to explore ethical issues in employing social robots to deliberately influence users through means not easy to detect, e.g. nudges and persuasive attitudes. Recent investigations on both nudging (see Borenstein & Arkin 2015, 2016) and persuading by robots (Siegel et al. 2009; Ghazali et al. 2020) revealed aspects worth to be further inquired.

The conceptualization of nudges and persuasive attitudes, as well as their effectiveness, are at the core of behavioral and cognitive sciences’ interests. Insights from such disciplines are nowadays extensive and fine-grained enough to provide humans with powerful means to influence both behaviors and decisions made by peers. However, the relevance of such insights when human-robot interactions are on focus still needs a systematic investigation. In particular, the effectiveness and ethical implications of nudging and persuasive processes implemented by social robots toward human users deserve a more adequate analysis.

Evidence and considerations regarding such topics in human-human interactions do not necessarily apply to cases in which social robots step into the shoes of those who nudge or persuade humans.

This eventual asymmetry stimulates us to develop an interdisciplinary research agenda in which behavioral economics, cognitive sciences, behavioral sciences and social robotics are connected. Should indirect influences by social robots be expected to be as effective as when implemented by humans? Are there specific ethical challenges in place when social robots are on focus? Does utilizing social robots open new solutions to the ethical challenges associated with nudges and means of persuasion? What kind of new knowledge or epistemic influence, if any, is typical of indirect influences by social robots?

We deem the above questions to be relevant and we expect they will be discussed along with others in the workshop. Therefore, the ultimate aspiration of our workshop is to promote the constitution of an interdisciplinary community engaged in the development of the research agenda outlined.


Borenstein, J., Arkin, R.C. (2015) Robotic Nudges: The Ethics of Engineering a More Socially Just Human Being, Science and Engineering Ethics, 22(1): 31–46.

Borenstein, J., Arkin, R.C. (2016). Nudging for good: robots and the ethical appropriateness of nurturing empathy and charitable behavior, AI & Society, 32(4): 499–507.

Ghazali, A.S., Ham, J., Barakova, E. et al. (2020) Persuasive Robots Acceptance Model (PRAM): Roles of Social Responses Within the Acceptance Model of Persuasive Robots, Int J of Soc Robotics 12: 1075–92.

Siegel, M., Breazeal, C., Norton, M. I. (2009) Persuasive Robotics: The influence of robot gender on human behavior, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems: 2563-68.

Invited Speakers

Edoardo Datteri (University of Milan Bicocca, Italy)

"Ontological stances towards robots"


Francesca Ervas (University of Cagliari, Italy)

"Metaphor-based nudging technologies"


Publication plans

The accepted abstracts will be published on the web-site of the workshop shortly after ICSR 2022, so that they can be accessed later.

Furthermore, we plan to involve the workshop keynote and the selected speakers in submitting contributions to a journal special issue on the topic of “Social Robots as a means of indirect influence”.

How to submit an abstract

If you would like to contribute to the workshop on “Social Robots as a Means of Indirect Influence", please send an email to Pierluigi Graziani (pierluigi.graziani@uniurb.it) with:

1) list of authors;

2) title of the presentation you intend to propose;

3) abstract of the presentation (min 800, max 1000 words, references excluded).

Organizers

Francesco Bianchini (University of Bologna, Italy)

Pierluigi Graziani (University of Urbino, Italy)


Workshop Program Committee


  • Francesco Bianchini (University of Bologna, Italy)

  • Stefano Calboli (Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society - University of Minho, Portugal)

  • Luisa Damiano (IULM University of Milan, Italy)

  • Edoardo Datteri (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy)

  • Francesca Ervas (University of Cagliari, Italy)

  • Roberto Merrill (Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society - University of Minho, Portugal)

  • Pierluigi Graziani (University of Urbino, Italy)

  • Lehmann Hagen (University of Bergamo, Italy)

  • Daniele Santoro (Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society - University of Minho, Portugal)

  • Vera Tripodi (Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy)

  • João Cardoso Rosas (Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society - University of Minho, Portugal)

  • Gentiane Venture (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan)


Information requests

For further information, please contact Francesco Bianchini (francesco.bianchini@unibo.it)