Papers
26
Total Citations
761
H-Index
13
About
Martina Mara is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI) and robot psychology, whose work sits at the intersection of technology acceptance, social robotics, and user experience. Based at Johannes Kepler University Linz, she has made significant contributions to understanding how people perceive and respond to humanoid and android robots, accumulating hundreds of citations across a body of work that spans both theoretical and applied dimensions of HRI. Mara is perhaps best known for her investigations into the "uncanny valley" phenomenon — the unsettling quality that arises when robots appear almost, but not quite, human — and for exploring how contextual factors like science fiction familiarity, head tilt, and vocal design shape user acceptance (68–83 citations each). Her 2018 paper on humanizing human-robot interaction (134 citations) remains her most influential work, arguing for deeper mutual understanding between humans and machines. She has also raised important methodological concerns about replicability in HRI research and ventured into provocative territory with studies on sex robots and psychological needs in technology use. Across her career, Mara has established herself as a rigorous yet creatively ambitious voice shaping how we think about our increasingly robotic future.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Humanizing Human-Robot Interaction: On the Importance of Mutual Understanding134 citations · 2018
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- 4Science fiction reduces the eeriness of android robots: A field experiment68 citations · 2015
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- 6Human-Like Robots and the Uncanny Valley62 citations · 2022
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- 8Otakuism and the Appeal of Sex Robots44 citations · 2019
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