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DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-7011-7.ch017
Chapter 17
Role of Emotions in the
Interaction Between Humans
and Artificial Agents
Richa Kapoor Mehra
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5420-8179
O.P. Jindal Global University, India
Asha Nimali Fernando
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1769-3355
University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
ABSTRACT
In this era of technological advancement, the once-clear distinction between human intelligence and
artificial intelligence is becoming blurred. From Google's search engine to Alexa, artificial intelligence
has captured many aspects of our lives. With the involvement of robots and artificial intelligence in our
lives, one needs to ponder upon the implications of human-robot interactions and understand artificial
intelligence better as robots are becoming a significant part of our living and working alongside humans,
especially in the health care domain. This gaining dependability of humans on robots poses a question:
can such a ‘care Bot’ really care without having genuine emotions? Can we distinguish between ro-
bots and humans? Can human interaction with robots be the same as human-human interaction? The
concept that weaves humans together is the concept of 'trust'; does this concept prevail in human-robot
relationships? Can the active participation of robots in society make them social robots? Can we call
them social robots?
INTRODUCTION
The emergence of the robotics industry, observed by Bill Gates, is developing in much the same
way that the computer business did 30 years ago (Gates, Bill. 2007. A robot in every home. Scientific
American 296(1) (January): 58-65). Various studies have claimed that robots in society will be like com-
puters in years to come. The advancement of technology gives rise to multiple challenges, such as job
displacement, privacy concerns, security fears, and many more. Earlier robots were supposed to perform