Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Brad A. Haggadone is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of social psychology and human-robot interaction (HRI), exploring how humans perceive, trust, and interact with social machines. His work fundamentally extends intergroup contact theory to the realm of human-robot relations, asking whether the psychological frameworks we use to understand human outgroups can help us navigate our growing coexistence with robots. In his most cited work, "Of robots and robotkind" (2021, 12 citations), Haggadone tests whether controlled contact can reduce negative feelings toward robots, laying groundwork for a new subfield of HRI. He further investigates the subtle mechanics of robot persuasion in "Avoiding the Abject and Seeking the Script" (2022, 7 citations), revealing how perceptions of mind and morality shape a robot's influence. His experimental studies on social facilitation (2021, 5 citations) demonstrate that a copresent robot can affect human performance, though more weakly than a human observer. Haggadone’s recent work on moral patiency (2023) breaks new ground by examining when and why people grant robots moral consideration. With a growing body of work that bridges classic social theory with emerging technology, Haggadone is shaping how we understand our future with robotkind.