Olivia Barber
Papers
2
Total Citations
50
H-Index
2
About
Olivia Barber’s research lies at the compelling intersection of developmental psychology and human-robot interaction, exploring how children perceive and respond to social robots versus live animals. Her work investigates the psychological mechanisms—such as animistic beliefs and perceived aliveness—that shape children’s evaluations of therapy dogs, biomimetic robots, and toy dogs. In her most-cited paper (2020, 34 citations), Barber demonstrated that children’s beliefs about an entity’s “aliveness” significantly influence their social engagement and emotional responses, challenging assumptions about the substitutability of robots for live animals in therapeutic settings. Her follow-up study (2023, 16 citations) further disentangled the role of perceived aliveness in shaping children’s interactions, offering nuanced insights for designing developmentally appropriate social robots. Barber’s contributions are critical for informing the ethical and effective deployment of robots in pediatric healthcare, education, and therapy. By bridging developmental theory with applied robotics, she provides a framework for understanding when and why children treat robots as social partners—a question with profound implications for technology design and child welfare.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2