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About

Molly C. Martini investigates the intersection of social cognition and human-robot interaction (HRI), focusing on how people perceive and respond to robotic agents. Her key research areas include mind attribution, social attention, and the minimal physical features required for robots to trigger human-like social responses. Martini’s most cited work, “Seeing Minds in Others – Can Agents with Robotic Appearance Have Human-Like Preferences?” (122 citations), demonstrates that ascribing mental states to non-human agents enhances likeability and joint-task performance in HRI, challenging assumptions about the necessity of human-like appearance. In “Agent Appearance Modulates Mind Attribution and Social Attention in Human-Robot Interaction” (38 citations), she shows that gaze following—a key social cue—depends on whether a robot is perceived as socially relevant, with appearance modulating this effect. Her studies on social facilitation (“Does the Presence of Social Agents Improve Cognitive Performance on a Vigilance Task?”) and minimal design features (“Minimal Physical Features Required for Social Robots”) further explore how even simple robotic forms can improve human performance and engagement. Martini’s work has significant implications for designing effective, socially intuitive robots, bridging psychology and robotics to create agents that seamlessly integrate into human environments.