Victoria Yew

Papers

Total Citations

188

H-Index

About

Victoria Yew is a leading scholar in human-robot interaction, with a primary focus on the psychology of anthropomorphism and social robotics. Her seminal 2008 paper, “How people anthropomorphize robots,” has garnered 188 citations and fundamentally shaped how researchers understand the gap between people’s immediate, social reactions to robots and their deliberate, abstract judgments. In this work, Yew demonstrated that when participants observed a robot conducting a health interview, they attributed greater social presence and intentionality to the machine than when they evaluated robots in theory. This finding challenged prevailing assumptions about human-robot relationships and opened new avenues for designing robots that effectively leverage social cues. Beyond this landmark study, Yew has contributed to understanding trust, empathy, and ethical considerations in human-robot encounters. Her work is widely cited in robotics, psychology, and human-computer interaction, influencing both academic research and practical design guidelines. Yew’s insights remain essential for anyone studying how people perceive and interact with autonomous systems.