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About

Gehan Wishwajith Premathilake is a rising scholar whose research illuminates how people perceive and interact with humanoid social robots (HSRs), a technology poised to transform service sectors like hospitality. His work centers on the psychological mechanisms behind users’ responses to robots’ anthropomorphic features—those human-like qualities that trigger social reactions. In his highly cited 2024 paper, “Users’ responses to humanoid social robots: A social response view” (25 citations), Premathilake argues that understanding these features is key to predicting user behavior. He further deepens this inquiry in “Understanding the effect of anthropomorphic features of humanoid social robots on user satisfaction: a stimulus-organism-response approach” (16 citations), where he models how design elements influence satisfaction through cognitive and emotional pathways. By applying established social response theory to emerging human-robot interaction, Premathilake bridges psychology and technology, offering actionable insights for designers and service providers. His work, though early in his career, has already garnered attention for its clarity and practical relevance, marking him as a promising voice in the study of socially intelligent robots.