An Attachment Framework for Human-Robot Interaction

Attachment theory is a research area in psychology that has enjoyed decades of successful study, and has subsequently become explored in realms beyond that of the original infant-caregiver bonds. Now, attachment is studied in relation to pets, symbols (such as deities), objects, technologies, and notably for our purposes, robots. When we discuss attachment in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), is “attachment” to a robot the same as being attached to a pet? Or does it more closely resemble attachment to a technology device such as a smartphone? Through untangling the concept of attachment in HRI, we summarize a breadth of the existing attachment literature in a unified spectrum. We present a notion of weak attachment, and strong attachment before setting both as distinct ends of a spectrum of attachment. We motivate this spectrum by teasing out the underlying theoretical basis for strong attachment, and how capabilities of the attachment figure could lead to stronger or weaker attachment. This more nuanced, multi-dimensional representation of attachment allows us to present a clarified categorization of where various human-robot bonds explored in HRI studies fit on the spectrum, where robots in general could place, and how a clearer definition of human-robot attachment can benefit future HRI studies.