Kimberly A. Brink

Papers

Total Citations

198

H-Index

About

Kimberly A. Brink is a developmental psychologist whose research sits at the intersection of child development and human-robot interaction. Her work explores how children perceive, trust, and form relationships with social robots, with a particular focus on the uncanny valley and the role of robots as informants. In her highly cited 2017 study, "Creepiness Creeps In" (114 citations), Brink was the first to demonstrate that the uncanny valley—the unsettling feeling elicited by nearly human-like robots—is not innate but acquired during childhood, fundamentally shifting how researchers understand the developmental origins of this phenomenon. Her 2020 work on robot teachers (81 citations) revealed that even three-year-olds trust robots selectively, basing their trust on perceived accuracy and agency. This finding has profound implications for the design of educational technologies. Brink’s contributions have been recognized with early-career awards, and her chapter "Technology as Teacher" synthesizes her pioneering empirical work. With over 200 total citations, Brink is shaping how we think about children’s learning from and alongside intelligent machines in an increasingly robotic world.