Kristen L. Stives

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Kristen L. Stives is a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of developmental psychology, human-robot interaction, and child safety. Her primary research areas focus on how social robots can be used as tools to facilitate communication with children, particularly in sensitive contexts like bullying disclosure. In her most impactful study, "Using robots to interview children about bullying: Lessons learned from an exploratory study" (2016, 52 citations), Stives conducted a pioneering comparison of children’s willingness to disclose bullying experiences to a human versus a social robot. Working with 60 children aged 8 to 12, she found that robotic interviewers could elicit unique patterns of disclosure, opening new avenues for trauma-informed and technology-assisted interviewing. Her follow-up work, "He can read your mind: Perceptions of a character-guessing robot" (2017, 9 citations), further explored how children anthropomorphize robots, revealing that young participants often attributed mind-reading capabilities to the Nao robot after a simple guessing game. These findings contribute to our understanding of child-robot trust and the design of developmentally appropriate interactive technologies. Stives’ research is notable for its ethical sensitivity and practical implications for education, counseling, and child advocacy, demonstrating how emerging technologies can be harnessed to protect and empower vulnerable populations.