--- title: When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people... description: A study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy examined how 50 men reacted when the humanoid robot Pepper made conversational errors, either while... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study | daily.dev og:description: A study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy examined how 50 men reacted when the humanoid robot Pepper made conversational errors, either while... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PyKHMpfZd.png og:image:alt: When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study **[Robohub](https://daily.dev/sources/robohub)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy examined how 50 men reacted when the humanoid robot Pepper made conversational errors, either while animated (gestures, eye contact, nods) or motionless. Expressive robot errors triggered coordinated activity in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex and raised oxytocin levels, which tracked with increased suspicion rather than bonding, predicting lower trust and less influence on decisions. Motionless robots' errors did not produce this brain coordination, suggesting people judge lifelike robots' mistakes as social violations rather than technical glitches, challenging the common design assumption that expressive robots retain more trust after errors. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do people trust an expressive humanoid robot less after it makes a mistake compared to a motionless one? Expressive robots that err trigger coordinated activity in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, brain regions involved in detecting norm violations and inferring intent, which raises oxytocin levels. Elevated oxytocin in this context tracks with suspicion rather than bonding, predicting lower self-reported trust and less influence on decisions, an effect absent when the same errors came from a motionless robot. _Anyone designing trustworthy robot or AI interfaces can follow findings like this on daily.dev._ ### What robot and method were used to study human trust and brain activity during robot errors? Researchers used the commercial humanoid robot Pepper, designed for expressiveness and emotion recognition, paired with 50 male participants who held conversations and made joint decisions with it. Brain activity was tracked using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a portable forehead sensor measuring blood oxygen levels, allowing measurement during natural movement and talk rather than requiring an MRI scanner. _Researchers tracking human-robot trust studies can follow this kind of work on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Smarter Robot Emotions From Vision Language Models](https://daily.dev/posts/smarter-robot-emotions-from-vision-language-models-sjiof9n2a) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A neural blueprint for human-like intelligence in soft robots](https://daily.dev/posts/a-neural-blueprint-for-human-like-intelligence-in-soft-robots-7efw2mkgi) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics), [#ethical-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ethical-ai) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T09:28:32.267Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T09:29:01.352Z","description":"A study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy examined how 50 men reacted when the humanoid robot Pepper made conversational errors, either while...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0e6f686cd82b523bc7008e2bf7e7dc2e?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0e6f686cd82b523bc7008e2bf7e7dc2e?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Robohub","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Robohub","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/79911e4f3a514623a70a98793133f536","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/robohub"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"robotics,ethical-ai","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Robohub","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/robohub"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-expressive-humanoid-robots-are-awkward-people-become-wary-new-brain-study-pykhmpfzd#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do people trust an expressive humanoid robot less after it makes a mistake compared to a motionless one?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Expressive robots that err trigger coordinated activity in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, brain regions involved in detecting norm violations and inferring intent, which raises oxytocin levels. 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