Karin Petrini

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About

Karin Petrini is a leading researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, social cognition, and healthcare technology. Her work explores how people perceive, trust, and interact with artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the psychological and user-centred factors that shape these relationships. In her highly cited 2025 study, “The AI of the Beholder,” Petrini demonstrates that trust in healthcare AI robots is driven not by their visual appearance but by user-centred factors such as prior experience, expectations, and perceived reliability—a finding with profound implications for the ethical deployment of assistive technologies. With over 2 citations in its first year, this work is already shaping conversations in human-robot trust calibration. Petrini’s broader contributions span multisensory integration, social perception, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying human interaction with both real and artificial agents. Her research is notable for bridging experimental psychology and applied robotics, offering evidence-based frameworks for designing trustworthy, user-responsive AI systems. A compelling voice in the future of human-centred technology, Petrini continues to influence how we understand and build trust in the machines that care for us.