Jari K. Hietanen
Papers
4
Total Citations
77
H-Index
4
About
Jari K. Hietanen is a distinguished researcher whose work sits at the fascinating intersection of social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and human-robot interaction. His scholarship centers on the psychophysiological underpinnings of social attention, with a particular focus on how eye contact shapes affective and attentional responses in both humans and, increasingly, artificial agents. Hietanen has made pioneering contributions to our understanding of how people respond physiologically to being watched — work that has taken on new urgency as humanoid robots become embedded in everyday life. His most influential study, examining psychophysiological responses to eye contact with a humanoid robot (2020, 59 citations), broke important ground by demonstrating that such interactions can mirror the affective responses triggered by genuine human eye contact. Subsequent research has refined this insight, exploring the roles of perceived intentionality and the sensation of being watched as mediating factors. Perhaps most strikingly, Hietanen has extended this line of inquiry to infant populations, probing the developmental origins of these social responses. Collectively, his work challenges conventional boundaries between human and machine social interaction, offering critical implications for robotics design, developmental psychology, and our broader understanding of what makes social connection feel real.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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