An edited collection that explores what emotions we have when encountering robots, how we react emotionally to them in different contexts, and why these emotional responses are so important.
An edited collection that explores what emotions we have when encountering robots, how we react emotionally to them in different contexts, and why these emotional responses are so important.
Do robots, or the AI that is driving them, have emotions? That is a hotly debated topic-both in science fiction, where such assertions are a staple of the narrative, and in tech development, where it often makes headlines. But what about how we humans emotionally respond to robots? Are our emotional responses any less important when it comes to how the robots we encounter today are designed? In How That Robot Made Me Feel, Ericka Johnson asks the authors in this collection to critically examine our emotional and affective responses to robots, and what such an examination would do to the way roboticists use (or toy with) our emotions in their design decisions.
The narrative arc of this anthology follows the question of just whose emotions are being engaged through robotic interactions, why, and for what design ends. Of course, the answer is that it is our emotions that are interesting. And these emotions are not universal, despite the historically universalist paradigm of AI and how robotic emotions work. Emotions are contingent, to borrow a commonly used phrase in feminist technoscience. They are placed in space, time, and cultural context. And understanding how they are produced and engaged with will help clarify many of the political aspects of robotic interaction that are currently concealed by the shiny and allegedly neutral surfaces of robots.
By:
Ericka Johnson
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262550949
ISBN 10: 0262550946
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 26 August 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Contents Introduction 1. Emotion AI, the Perils of “Speaking for,” and Empathy as Imposition Jennifer Rhee 2. The Role of Intentionality in Human-Robot Interaction Tom Ziemke 3. The Way Things Feel: Working with a Non-Humanlike AI Colleague in the Control Room Ahmet Börütecene 4. Robots Playing with Emotions: Commodifying Human Emotions Roger Søraa and Mark Kharas 5. Robot Animals and the Emotional Labor of Caregivers Marcus Persson, Clara Iversen, and David Redmalm 6. Robot Meets Pets Ericka Johnson 7. The Imperfectly Relatable Robot Katherine Harrison, Kavyaa Somasundaram, and Amy Loutfi 8. The Difference Between You and Me(chanical) Robot Karin Danielsson 9. Western and Buddhist Psychological Models of Emotion for Human-Robot Flourishing Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno Bibliography Index List of Contributors
Ericka Johnson is a Professor of Gender and Society at Link ping University, Sweden; Director of the National Graduate School of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program-Humanity and Society (WASP-HS); and a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is the author of many books, including A Cultural Biography of the Prostate (MIT Press).
