ロボットとの共食が食体験時の孤独気分に与える影響

This study aimed to explore the impact of communal eating with robots on feelings of loneliness and mood. The experiment involved 33 undergraduate and graduate students, who were divided into three groups: dining with a close other, dining with a robot, and dining alone. Participants dined for 10 minutes under their assigned conditions and completed questionnaires about loneliness and negative mood before and after the meal. The results showed that dining with a close other or a robot significantly reduced feelings of loneliness during the meal, and the effects of these groups were comparable. Additionally, dining with a close other significantly reduced negative mood compared to eating alone. However, dining with a robot did not show a significant change in negative mood compared to eating alone. These results suggest that eating with a robot may reduce loneliness to the same extent as eating with a close other, and also suggest that eating with a close other may reduce loneliness and negative mood. In the future, it is considered essential to address the limitations of this study and further explore the effectiveness of approaches to loneliness using robots.