Papers
8
Total Citations
724
H-Index
7
About
David Westerman is a communication scholar whose research sits at the intersection of human-machine communication, social robotics, and artificial intelligence. His work has fundamentally shaped how researchers understand the expectations, perceptions, and interpersonal dynamics that emerge when humans interact with robots and AI systems. Westerman's early and highly influential studies — including "Welcoming Our Robot Overlords" (151 citations) and "Initial Interaction Expectations with Robots" (147 citations) — demonstrated that people apply familiar human-to-human interaction scripts when approaching robots, experiencing greater uncertainty and altered expectations compared to human encounters. His 2018 work on initial expectations with social robots (195 citations) has become a cornerstone reference in the field. Westerman has also advanced theoretical frameworks for understanding AI humanness, most notably through his application of Martin Buber's relational philosophy in "I-It, I-Thou, I-Robot" (110 citations), exploring how perceived humanness shapes human-machine communication. More recently, his investigations into machine heuristics, chatbot perception, and ontological framing reveal how cognitive shortcuts influence our evaluations of artificial agents. Collectively, his scholarship — accumulating hundreds of citations — has helped establish human-machine communication as a legitimate and vital area within communication research.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Initial expectations, interactions, and beyond with social robots195 citations · 2018
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- 5I Believe in a Thing Called Bot: Perceptions of the Humanness of “Chatbots”75 citations · 2018
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