Caroline Bank

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About

Caroline Bank’s research lies at the intersection of human-robot interaction, social cognition, and the psychology of cooperation. Her work explores how people perceive, respond to, and assist robots, revealing critical insights into the social dynamics that shape human-robot relationships. In her highly cited 2011 study (60 citations), Bank demonstrated that, unlike human gaze, robot gaze does not reflexively cue human attention—a foundational finding that distinguishes social processing of artificial agents from natural human cues. This work has shaped subsequent research on joint attention and social cueing in robotics. Her 2014 paper (25 citations) showed that people are more willing to help robots that help others, rather than those that help themselves, highlighting the importance of prosocial behavior in human-robot cooperation. In another 2014 study (13 citations), Bank examined how gendered robot voices influence help-seeking behavior, finding that participants were more likely to ask for assistance from robots with stereotypically female voices. Together, these contributions advance our understanding of how social norms, empathy, and gender stereotypes transfer to interactions with machines, offering essential guidance for designing more effective and socially aware robotic systems.