Tom Hitron, Thomas H Weisswange, Guy Doron, Hadas Erel, "Designing Robotic Behavior for Promoting Positive Human-Human Interactions in Challenging Environments: A Research Agenda for Leveraging Modeling and Carryover Effects", 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2026): Workshop on Robots for Communities, 2026.

Robots are increasingly integrated into public environments for functional and technical purposes, yet once positioned in shared human spaces they also have inevitable social impact that can shape how people behave, interact with them, and interact with one another. We present a framework for using minimal robotic behavior to foster a more positive social atmosphere in emotionally challenging environments, with a focus on hospitals. Building on evidence of carryover effects in human–robot interaction, as well as mechanisms of social modeling, social script priming, and emotional contagion, we propose robotic greeting as a clear, low-effort, and easy-to-interpret social behavior for encouraging positivity in passing encounters. These brief interactions may carryover to subsequent interactions and contribute to a more positive communal environment. We outline three hospital use cases to demonstrate how this robotic behavior can prime friendly interactions that persist over time and support a more positive socio-emotional climate.