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About

David Redmalm is a sociologist whose research sits at the intersection of aging, technology, and care work, with a particular focus on the role of social robots in dementia care. His work has made significant contributions to understanding how robotic animals — designed to mimic cats, dogs, and seals — are integrated into nursing home environments, examining their effects on both residents and the caregivers who work alongside them. His 2021 scoping review on robots and caregiver work environments has garnered 66 citations, establishing him as a leading voice on the often-overlooked experiences of care workers in human-robot interaction. Redmalm's most distinctive contribution lies in his examination of ethical complexity surrounding robotic deception. Through empirical studies drawing on interviews and observational fieldwork, he interrogates how robot animals mislead residents with dementia, how emotions function as sense-making resources in those encounters, and how caregivers navigate the resulting moral dilemmas. His conceptualization of "triadic interaction" — involving caregiver, resident, and robot simultaneously — offers a nuanced theoretical framework rare in the field. More recently, he has explored emotional labor in care work, asking how staff manage residents' misperceptions of robots as living animals. Redmalm's scholarship challenges researchers and policymakers alike to think critically about transparency, ethics, and human dignity in technology-assisted care.