Mieke Boon

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About

Mieke Boon is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction, with a particular focus on how people perceive and respond to humanlike robots in real-world contexts. Her work bridges social psychology, robotics, and media studies to explore the nuanced emotional and social reactions that robots evoke. In her most-cited paper, "Uncanny, Sexy, and Threatening Robots" (2021, 21 citations), Boon pioneered a novel approach by analyzing online video commentary to capture natural, unfiltered responses to robots of varying humanlikeness and gender. This study revealed that people’s reactions are far more complex than lab experiments suggest, encompassing feelings of unease, attraction, and perceived threat. Boon’s contributions have deepened our understanding of the uncanny valley phenomenon and the role of gender in robot design, offering critical insights for developers aiming to create socially acceptable robots. Her work is widely cited in robotics, human-computer interaction, and media psychology, and she is recognized for bringing ecological validity to the study of human-robot relationships. Boon continues to shape how we think about the social implications of increasingly humanlike machines.