Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Gijsbert Bijlstra investigates the psychological foundations of human-robot interaction, focusing on how robots can earn and signal trustworthiness. His research demonstrates that a robot’s performance and behavioral style directly shape human trust, a finding from his highly cited 2014 paper (114 citations). Bijlstra’s key contribution lies in designing nonverbal warning signals—such as cues that alert users to poor performance—enabling people to take preventive action and improving collaborative outcomes. His work extends to the moral dimensions of robotics: his 2024 study reveals that witnessing intentional harm toward robots paradoxically leads people to both anthropomorphize and dehumanize them, challenging assumptions about machine mind perception. In the “Peg-Turning Dilemma” (2023), Bijlstra introduces an experimental framework to measure altruistic behavior toward robots, exploring whether humans feel guilt when benefiting at a robot’s cost. Through rigorous replication and extension of prior effects, Bijlstra bridges social psychology and robotics, offering practical insights for designing trustworthy autonomous systems. His research has profound implications for how we build, perceive, and ethically treat the robots that increasingly share our world.