Papers
17
Total Citations
310
H-Index
9
About
Maike Paetzel’s research sits at the fascinating intersection of social psychology and human-robot interaction (HRI), exploring how people perceive, bond with, and respond to artificial agents over time. Her most influential work, “The Persistence of First Impressions” (99 citations), challenges assumptions about long-term HRI by demonstrating that initial negative impressions of a robot can stubbornly persist despite repeated interactions—a critical insight for designing robots meant for homes or care settings. Paetzel has also made foundational contributions to understanding the “uncanny valley,” showing that ambiguous or incongruent gender cues in robots (e.g., mismatched voice and face) significantly heighten uncanny feelings (22 citations), and that robot personality traits influence how these unsettling perceptions develop over time (74 citations). Her studies extend to children’s perception of uncanniness (17 citations) and the role of empathy and embodiment in facial mimicry (14 citations), using innovative computer vision-based measures. By systematically unpacking how multimodal cues, personality coherence, and emotional attribution shape our reactions to robots, Paetzel’s work provides essential guidance for designing more trustworthy, likeable, and socially intelligent artificial companions.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1The Persistence of First Impressions99 citations · 2020
- 2The Influence of robot personality on the development of uncanny feelings74 citations · 2021
- 3
- 4Let Me Get To Know You Better17 citations · 2019
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10