The interesting part came when they held the Furby. The children said that, even though they knew it was just a toy, they worried that they were “hurting” the robot (which loudly protested being upside down), suggesting that they felt some empathy for the furry machine.

Now, a new study by a team of Japanese researchers shows that, in certain situations, children are actually horrible little brats that may not be as empathetic towards robots as we’d previously thought, with gangs of unsupervised tykes repeatedly punching, kicking, and shaking a robot in a Japanese mall.



The researchers—from ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, Osaka University, Ryukoku University, and Tokai University, in Japan—patrolled a public shopping complex in Osaka with a remotely operated Robovie 2 (a robot that is, incidentally, no stranger to abuse).

Whenever somebody obstructed the robot’s path, it would politely ask the human to step aside. If the human didn’t listen, the robot moved in the opposite direction. Over the course of the study, researchers found that children were sometimes all too eager to give the robot a hard time. Particularly when in packs and unsupervised, the youngsters would intentionally block Robovie’s way.

Just look at these seemingly adorable hellmonsters refuse to let poor Robovie past:

To read the rest of the essay, click here.

Image: ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories