Last month, the University of Waterloo (Samira Rasouli, Garima Gupta, Elizabeth Nilsen & Kerstin Dautenhahn) published a paper on the effectiveness of social robots for clinicians and patients in Robot-Assisted Interventions for Social Anxiety. They used MiRo and a range of social robots in their study. Their research supports the use of social robots in robot-assisted interventions for social anxiety and you can read the full research paper here. We have summarised their article below.
“Interactions with social robots could help alleviate anxiety and tension in both children and adults with and without social anxiety, demonstrating the efficacy of human-robot interactions. ”
What is Social Anxiety?
Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is a condition characterized by debilitating fear and avoidance of different social situations. The onset of social anxiety disorder typically occurs in childhood or early adolescence. Early diagnosis and intervention are critical for individuals with social anxiety disorder considering the risk of morbidity and disability.
The Case for Using Social Robots
Conventional treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring, social skills training, cognitive bias modification, and mindfulness-based stress reduction are effective however, treatment avoidance and attrition are high. These treatments can be delivered using assistive technologies such telephones, smartphones, virtual conferences including apps downloaded onto smart devices, however, there are also limitations. The team at the University of Waterloo therefore explored the use of socially interactive technologies - social robots, to deliver or supplement psychosocial interventions to minimize barriers to conventional treatment and enhance treatment effectiveness.
Image from the University of Waterloo
Social Robots and Social Anxiety Disorder
Their study demonstrated that social robots could offer a new way of delivering interventions. Interactions with social robots could help alleviate anxiety and tension in both children and adults with and without social anxiety, demonstrating the efficacy of human-robot interactions. Individuals with social anxiety tend to experience less anticipatory anxiety when they are meeting with a robot than a human.
The most successfully used social robots across many application areas are robots with a relatively simplistic appearance, but still providing a rich repertoire for verbal and non-verbal interaction and communication with people. For example, the robots can use gaze, facial expressions, body movements, hand gestures, head orientation, control of interpersonal distance (proxemics), and speech to engage people. They can be used to show predictable behaviour in a non-judgmental manner, providing motivating and positive feedback to humans. Robots are programmable machines, they do not show immediate judgmental feedback, as humans would show, unless they are programmed to do so (e.g., a raised eyebrow, changing eye gaze, body posture or prosody). Social robots are typically fully programmable and can express a variety of different behaviours, that might be augmented with learning and adaptation mechanisms in order to personalise the robot’s behaviour and allow it to change behaviours over time, for example, during the course of treatment.
MiRo is used in other social robotics research
The social robot’s physical presence could also create a rich interactive environment, which may promote better engagement in activities associated with interventions since they can interact in a non-judgmental, flexible, predictable, and engaging manner. Due to the recent impact of COVID-19, physical distancing from others interrupted how mental health care was delivered. Therefore, the physical presence of social robots can help reduce the negative impact of these situations. The research highlighted that social robots are not meant to be substitutions for human therapists, but should be used as tools to extend and enhance the support provided by clinicians.
The Benefits of Social Robots for People with Social Anxiety
Using social robots as a “stepping stone” in conventional interventions could help individuals with social anxiety to practice their social skills and behaviours with a robot before applying their skills to human-human interaction - an introductory treatment without the pressures of interaction with another person. Clients who experience excessive fear of negative evaluations may have less tension and stress when they are interacting with a social robot, and the anxiety symptoms experienced during therapy might be more manageable for the individual. This has the potential to make the overall treatment experience more positive for the client. Social robots could also be personalized and adapted to provide the support most suitable for the individual client.
The Benefits of Social Robots for Clinicians
Social robots can assist clinicians in a variety of functions, such as coaching or instructing clients through tasks, providing feedback, assisting with treatment adherence, performing repetitive tasks, and monitoring symptoms and treatment progress. Social robots also offer the advantage of providing interventions in a controlled manner. For example, clinicians, if provided with an easy-to-use interface to program the robot, they could control, change, or modify the robots’ behaviours and functions for a specific client and scenario.
Social robots may also be particularly useful for aspects of the targeted intervention that include many repetitive steps, which would allow clinicians to focus on the overall process of the treatment and concerns specific to the individual. Social robots can be integrated into therapeutic interventions, taking advantage of the strength of social robots (e.g., providing non-judgmental, reliable engagement) with the strength of clinicians who possess deep expert knowledge, as well as the required understanding of human nature in general, and social anxiety in particular.
Food for Thought
Their research proposes the use of social robots in the current conventional approaches for social anxiety. Future research in the application of social robot interventions for social anxiety disorder is needed to advance the field of robot-assisted mental health interventions in order to benefit clients and clinicians, improving mental health and well-being of those in need.
Using MiRo for Social Robotics Research and Robot-Assisted Therapy
MiRo is used in a wide variety of social robotics research at universities around the world, including UK schools to support students with special educational needs (SEN). Email a member of the team below to learn how MiRo can support your objectives.