Steven Sherrin

Papers

Total Citations

163

H-Index

About

Steven Sherrin is a human-robot interaction (HRI) researcher whose work sits at the intersection of social psychology and robotics, with a particular focus on how humans relate to robots as social entities — both individually and in groups. His influential 2015 paper, "Rabble of Robots Effects" (65 citations), broke new ground by moving beyond the dominant one-to-one interaction paradigm in HRI, revealing how people's emotions, attitudes, and stereotypes shift when confronting groups of robots rather than single units. Sherrin has consistently challenged assumptions about what drives human willingness to engage with robots; his 2020 study (57 citations) demonstrated that positive emotions are stronger predictors of interaction willingness than anxiety, reframing how researchers think about robot acceptance. His 2019 work (38 citations) further explored whether human-robot dynamics become more competitive in group contexts, drawing on intergroup relations theory. Applying classic social psychology frameworks such as intergroup contact theory, Sherrin's research suggests that structured, positive exposure to robots may reduce human prejudice toward them — a finding with meaningful implications for robotics deployment in schools, workplaces, and caregiving environments.