Tuan Vu Pham, Judith Dörrenbächer, Thomas H Weisswange, Marc Hassenzahl, "“Who Owns the Robot Matters!” – How Robot Ownership Shapes Belonging and Social Roles in Human Groups", ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2026), 2026.

Robot ownership is not just a background detail but a powerful social signal. Especially in settings where a robot mediates a group of people, ownership may profoundly impact social dynamics. In the present study, participants (n = 220) saw one of five videos in which a robot was introduced as being owned by either (1) a faceless outgroup entity, (2) an active ingroup speaker, (3) a passive ingroup peer, (4) the participants themselves, or (5) the entire group. Then, participants viewed a video of a group discussion during which the robot nodded affirmingly when the ingroup speaker contributed. We measured participants' sense of group cohesion, their perception of the ingroup speaker, and member status of the robot and posed open-ended questions concerning the robot. When the robot was owned by the participant or by the entire group, group cohesion was perceived as the highest. The robot felt socially closer and collaborative. In contrast, when the robot was owned by the speaker, the robot appeared more distant and manipulative. Thus, design strategies for human-human-robot interaction should consider the pivotal role of robot ownership in groups.