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Fictional emotions and emotional reactions to social robots as depictions of social agents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2023

Jonas Blatter
Affiliation:
Institute for Philosophy I, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum 44801, Germany jonas.blatter@ruhr-uni-bochum.de eva.weber-guskar@ruhr-uni-bochum.de https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/weber_guskar
Eva Weber-Guskar
Affiliation:
Institute for Philosophy I, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum 44801, Germany jonas.blatter@ruhr-uni-bochum.de eva.weber-guskar@ruhr-uni-bochum.de https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/weber_guskar

Abstract

Following the depiction theory by Clark and Fischer we would expect people interacting with robots to experience fictional emotions akin to those toward films or novels. However, some people's emotional reactions toward robots display the motivational force typical to non-fictional emotions. We discuss this incongruity and offer two suggestions on how to explain it while maintaining the depiction theory.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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