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About

Frank Schwab is a media psychologist whose research sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction, social robotics, and emotional communication. His work investigates how people perceive and emotionally respond to robots, with a particular focus on facial expressions and nonverbal cues in human-robot interaction. His 2017 paper, "Faces of Emotion," which has garnered 36 citations, represents a significant contribution to understanding how users interpret and react to robotic emotional displays — a crucial question as robots become increasingly integrated into social environments. Complementing this work, his 2016 study employing the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) brings methodological rigor to the analysis of human emotional reactions toward robots. More recently, Schwab has expanded his scope to explore how linguistic variation shapes user evaluations of robots, demonstrating in a 2020 study that regional dialects versus standard language meaningfully influence how people relate to robotic agents. Drawing on both media psychology and sociolinguistics, this line of inquiry highlights the nuanced social dynamics at play in human-robot communication. Together, his contributions offer valuable insights for researchers and designers working to create more socially intelligent and culturally sensitive robotic systems.