Alessandra Sacino

University of Genoa, University of Chieti-Pescara

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About

Alessandra Sacino is a cognitive scientist whose research illuminates how the human mind perceives and processes humanoid robots. Her work sits at the intersection of social cognition and human-robot interaction, focusing on the psychological mechanisms underlying anthropomorphism—the tendency to attribute human-like qualities to non-human agents. In her most-cited study, "Human- or object-like? Cognitive anthropomorphism of humanoid robots" (2022, 28 citations), Sacino employed the inversion paradigm across three experiments with 302 participants to demonstrate that people cognitively elaborate humanoid robot faces as object-like rather than human-like, challenging assumptions about automatic anthropomorphism. Her forthcoming 2025 work further explores the factors influencing this cognitive processing. With a growing citation impact, Sacino’s research provides critical empirical evidence for understanding how humans categorize and respond to increasingly lifelike robots—insights essential for designing socially acceptable AI and robotic systems. Her methodical approach bridges experimental psychology and robotics, offering a rigorous framework for studying human-robot interaction.