Showing papers by "Chi-Yue Chiu published in 2005"

Human Mental Models of Humanoid Robots

Abstract: Effective communication between a person and a robot may depend on whether there exists a common ground of understanding between the two. In two experiments modelled after human-human studies we examined how people form a mental model of a robot’s factual knowledge. Participants estimated the robot’s knowledge by extrapolating from their own knowledge and from information about the robot’s origin and language. These results suggest that designers of humanoid robots must attend not only to the social cues that robots emit but also to the information people use to create mental models of a robot.

Culture, essentialism, and agency: Are individuals universally believed to be more real entities than groups?

Abstract: Are human individuals universally seen to be more real entities (or more entitative, to use Campbell's, 1958, term) than social groups? Although the individual may be seen to be more entitative than social groups in the West, it is unclear whether this is the case in other cultures, especially in East Asia. Two aspects of perceived entitativity are distinguished: psychological essentialism (belief in the presence of essence-like unchangeable properties) and agency (perception that a social entity is an agent), and examined for four social targets (individual, family, friendship group, and society) in three English-speaking cultures (Australia, UK, and USA), three East Asian cultures (Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea), and two continental European cultures (Belgium and Germany). In all cultures, the individual person was seen to possess essence-like unchangeable characteristics more than social groups (i.e. essentialized). As for agency, the individual person was seen to be more agentic than groups in Western cultures, but both individuals and groups were conferred an equal level of agency in East Asia. Individuals may be universally more essentialized than friendship groups and societies, but not always seen to be more agentic, than social groups. Implications of the results for conceptions of individualism and collectivism are discussed.

Some boundary conditions of the expressor culture effect in emotion recognition: Evidence from Hong Kong Chinese perceivers

Abstract: In a recent review of the emotion recognition literature, Elfenbein and Ambady (2002) found that recognition is generally more accurate for perceivers from the same cultural group as the emotion expressors. In two studies conducted in Hong Kong, we found little evidence for such expressor culture effect. In contrast, a reverse trend was found in the recognition of several emotions. We interpret these findings in terms of the unique display and decoding rules of emotions in Asian contexts. In addition, the effects of expressor culture were observed only in non-pleasant emotions, but not in happiness. Finally, reaction time data revealed that identification of happiness is an automatic, holistic process, identification of non-pleasant emotions is a relatively capacity-consuming, piecemeal process.

A posteriori information effects on culpability judgments from a cross-cultural perspective.

Abstract: A posteriori information about the moral attributes of the victim of a crime can affect an observer's judgment on the culpability of the actor of the crime so that negative moral attributes of the victim will lead to a lower judgment of culpability. The authors found this effect of a posteriori information among 118 American and 123 Chinese participants, but the underlying mechanisms were different between the two cultural groups. The Americans considered the psychological state of the actor during the crime, whereas the Chinese considered the morality of the actor during the crime. The authors discussed these results in light of the respondents' implicit theories of morality.