With the rapid advancement of robotics, robots' helping behaviors are increasingly framed not only as functional assistance but also as prosocially meaningful interaction. In this context, the resource cost borne by the help-provider is a critical factor, yet it has not been systematically explored in existing human-robot interaction (HRI) research. Understanding how humans perceive and respond to different types of helping is essential for building better human-robot relationships. This study addresses this gap through two experiments. Study 1 examined the role of agent resource type (robot's own resources vs. external resources). Results showed that when robots shared their own resources, participants did not report significant differences in overall attitudes or prosocial behavior, but attributed higher performance trust and expressed stronger feelings of gratitude and guilt. Study 2 further examined the importance of agent resources (robot battery level: high vs. low). The results showed that even when relative costs were the same, participants tended to perceive sharing from a low-battery robot as more reliable, while variations in resource type or importance did not significantly change social responses. These findings suggest that human evaluations of robots are shaped not only by the outcomes of helping but also by the perceived cost and sacrifice underlying robot actions. Our work offers an initial direction for integrating resource cost considerations into the design of social robots.
Robophobia is a recent and growing trend on social media, where users create humorous videos that play on the general fear of robots. While framed as jokes, these videos contribute to the public's attitudes and expectations of robots, influencing what is socially and culturally acceptable. To investigate this emerging trend, we conducted a thematic analysis of 200 English-speaking TikTok videos using online ethnography to explore how users engage with robophobia and what implications this may have for the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) field. Our findings show that robophobia on TikTok is predominantly expressed through humorous skits and verbal abuse of real-world robots in public spaces. Common themes include fears about humans in romantic relationships with robots, and frequent use of derogatory terms such as "clanker" to verbally "dehumanize" robots. The robophobia trend is culturally embedded and reveals people's underlying attitudes and fears toward robots in society, both now and in the future. We discuss the implications of these findings for the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), emphasizing how public expectations are shaped by cultural narratives, and stress the need for culturally sensitive, expectation-aware HRI research and robot design.
