Social Mediation through Robots -- A Scoping Review on Improving Group Interactions through Directed Robot Action using an Extended Group Process Model

Group processes refer to the dynamics that occur within a group and are critical for understanding how groups function. With robots being increasingly placed within small groups, improving these processes has emerged as an important application of social robotics. Social Mediation Robots elicit behavioral change within groups by deliberately influencing the processes of groups. While research in this field has demonstrated that robots can effectively affect interpersonal dynamics, there is a notable gap in integrating these insights to develop coherent understanding and theory. We present a scoping review of literature targeting changes in social interactions between multiple humans through intentional action from robotic agents. To guide our review, we adapt the classical Input-Process-Output (I-P-O) models that we call "Mediation I-P-O model". We evaluated 1633 publications, which yielded 89 distinct social mediation concepts. We construct 11 mediation approaches robots can use to shape processes in small groups and teams. This work strives to produce generalizable insights and evaluate the extent to which the potential of social mediation through robots has been realized thus far. We hope that the proposed framework encourages a holistic approach to the study of social mediation and provides a foundation to standardize future reporting in the domain.

What Could a Social Mediator Robot Do? Lessons from Real-World Mediation Scenarios

The use of social robots as instruments for social mediation has been gaining traction in the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). So far, the design of such robots and their behaviors is often driven by technological platforms and experimental setups in controlled laboratory environments. To address complex social relationships in the real world, it is crucial to consider the actual needs and consequences of the situations found therein. This includes understanding when a mediator is necessary, what specific role such a robot could play, and how it moderates human social dynamics. In this paper, we discuss six relevant roles for robotic mediators that we identified by investigating a collection of videos showing realistic group situations. We further discuss mediation behaviors and target measures to evaluate the success of such interventions. We hope that our findings can inspire future research on robot-assisted social mediation by highlighting a wider set of mediation applications than those found in prior studies. Specifically, we aim to inform the categorization and selection of interaction scenarios that reflect real situations, where a mediation robot can have a positive and meaningful impact on group dynamics.