It’s not just an open question whether robots will be able to determine for themselves who or what is worth caring about, how to lead their best lives, or experience anything like authenticity. If you look at the world the way a behaviorist like Alan Turing (inventor of the Turing Test) did, robots can be our complete friends so long as they meet two criteria: They

Danaher admits that this argument is a “tough sale,” because plenty of people would find it hard to believe that a superfriend robot isn’t a mere simulation. But as Turing warned, if you ask these folks why they’re confident that humans are the only real deal, you might get emotional and prejudicial responses instead of carefully reasoned justifications.

Our “Friendly” Products

Danaher wonders if treating robots as friends of utility or pleasure can get in the way of humans pursuing friendships of the good with each other. This is both a psychological and sociological issue and has profound ethical implications. Considering the possibilities brings us back to the “

Mourey, Olson, and Yoon ran four experiments to find out if people who experience social alienation can feel better after engaging with products they perceive as having humanlike qualities.

What they discovered is remarkable: People who engaged with anthropomorphically described phones were less apt to compensate for feeling socially excluded than people who interacted with phones that were described in more neutral terms. Specifically, the folks who were on team anthropomorphism were less prone to overestimate how many Facebook friends they have.

This result, which targeted a proxy for social connectedness, suggests that personified objects can provide real comfort — something that people regularly turn to their human friends for.

The researchers also discovered that people who were primed to feel socially excluded benefitted by viewing a picture of Roomba that looked like it had a human face. These participants anticipated spending less time talking with friends and family over the phone in the following month than the participants who saw a picture of Roomba that looked more like a device than a person.

What the evidence suggests, therefore, is that anthropomorphic objects can affect how much social support people who feel excluded anticipate needing in the near future.

The third experiment demonstrated that interacting with anthropomorphic products correlates with socially excluded people feeling less inclined to do volunteer work. In other words, friendly objects seem to make people less motivated to have pro-social experiences.

The fourth experiment showed that the social assurance that anthropomorphic products provide depends upon people viewing them as more humanlike than they really are. Calling explicit attention to the fact that seemingly human devices are just objects can diminish the power the artifacts have over us. All it takes to dispel the illusion is to make it clear that a Roomba that looks like it’s smiling isn’t really doing so.

I asked Olson to interpret the social consequences of the research. “Our results,” she said, “could be seen as both positive (highlighting a simple way for individuals to alleviate feelings of exclusion) and negative (doing so comes with an interpersonal cost).” The thing to keep in mind, Olson emphasized, is that while the “data suggest that humans can, at least partially and temporarily, satisfy social needs with anthropomorphic products,” it “cannot speak to the effects of chronic loneliness, which is likely to be much more nefarious/detrimental for individuals.”

If fairly basic anthropomorphic objects can have such a powerful impact on our sense of social well-being, then truly sophisticated ones — robots that make Siri and Google Assistant seem downright primitive — can be expected to have a greater hold over us, especially younger children who “struggle” with distinguishing between lifelike robots and living beings.

While this might be good news for anyone who needs a little boost to recover from social isolation or is stuck in a socially isolating environment, it’s also a prospect we need to be vigilant about. Aristotle rightly believed that the good life requires having friends of the very best kind. We should ensure that if we befriend robots, our time together doesn’t foreclose more meaningful possibilities.