title: The shaping of social perception by stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy.
abstract: Although robots are becoming an ever-growing presence in society, we do not hold the same expectations for robots as we do for humans, nor do we treat them the same. As such, the ability to recognize cues to human animacy is fundamental for guiding social interactions. We review literature that demonstrates cortical networks associated with person perception, action observation and mentalizing are sensitive to human animacy information. In addition, we show that most prior research has explored stimulus properties of artificial agents (humanness of appearance or motion), with less investigation into knowledge cues (whether an agent is believed to have human or artificial origins). Therefore, currently little is known about the relationship between stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy in terms of cognitive and brain mechanisms. Using fMRI, an elaborate belief manipulation, and human and robot avatars, we found that knowledge cues to human animacy modulate engagement of person perception and mentalizing networks, while stimulus cues to human animacy had less impact on social brain networks. These findings demonstrate that self-other similarities are not only grounded in physical features but are also shaped by prior knowledge. More broadly, as artificial agents fulfil increasingly social roles, a challenge for roboticists will be to manage the impact of pre-conceived beliefs while optimizing human-like design.
authors.affiliation: Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Wales, The Netherlands Department of Social and Cultural Psychology, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands e.cross@bangor.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Emily S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1671-5698
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.affiliation: Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Wales, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramsey
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Westfällische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liepelt
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Prinz
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Antonia F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: de C Hamilton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D019359:Knowledge; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012371:Robotics; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: action observation network; animacy; fMRI; mentalizing; social cognition; social robotics