{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T17:02:24Z","timestamp":1791910944129,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]],"date-time":"2023-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685577600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Robot. AI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The behaviour of shedding tears is a unique human expression of emotion. Human tears have an emotional signalling function that conveys sadness and a social signalling function that elicits support intention from others. The present study aimed to clarify whether the tears of robots have the same emotional and social signalling functions as human tears, using methods employed in previous studies conducted on human tears. Tear processing was applied to robot pictures to create pictures with and without tears, which were used as visual stimuli. In Study 1, the participants viewed pictures of robots with and without tears and rated the intensity of the emotion experienced by the robot in the picture. The results showed that adding tears to a robot\u2019s picture significantly increased the rated intensity of sadness. Study 2 measured support intentions towards a robot by presenting a robot\u2019s picture with a scenario. The results showed that adding tears to the robot\u2019s picture also increased the support intentions indicating that robot tears have emotional and social signalling functions similar to those of human tears.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2023.1121624","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]],"date-time":"2023-06-01T05:01:10Z","timestamp":1685595670000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Robots with tears can convey enhanced sadness and elicit support intentions"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Akiko","family":"Yasuhara","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Takuma","family":"Takehara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"596","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.63.4.596","article-title":"Inclusion of other in the self-scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness","volume":"63","author":"Aron","year":"1992","journal-title":"J. Pers. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"148","DOI":"10.1177\/147470491301100114","article-title":"Emotional tears facilitate the recognition of sadness and the perceived need for social support","volume":"11","author":"Balsters","year":"2013","journal-title":"Evol. Psychol."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00986117","article-title":"The development of nonverbal communication of emotion: A functionalist perspective","volume":"17","author":"Barrett","year":"1993","journal-title":"J. Nonverbal Behav."},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"367","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-014-0237-z","article-title":"Deriving minimal features for human-like facial expressions in robotic faces","volume":"6","author":"Bennett","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"454","DOI":"10.1109\/3468.952719","article-title":"I show you how I like you - can you read it in my face? [robotics]","volume":"31","author":"Ca\u00f1amero","year":"2001","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man, Cybern. - Part A Syst. Humans"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"864","DOI":"10.1037\/0033-295X.114.4.864","article-title":"On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism","volume":"114","author":"Epley","year":"2007","journal-title":"Psychol. Rev."},{"key":"B7","first-page":"646","article-title":"Anthropomorphic inferences from emotional nonverbal cues: A case study","author":"Eyssel","year":"2010"},{"key":"B54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2158244015625445","article-title":"Two cross-platform programs for inferences and interval estimation about indirect effects in mediational models","volume":"6","author":"Falk","year":"2016","journal-title":"SAGE Open"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.3758\/BF03193146","article-title":"G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences","volume":"39","author":"Faul","year":"2007","journal-title":"Behav. Res. Methods"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-34103-8_20","article-title":"Anthropomorphism and human likeness in the design of robots and human-robot interaction","volume-title":"Social robotics","author":"Fink","year":"2012"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"231","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-016-0389-0","article-title":"Teaching robot\u2019s proactive behavior using human assistance","volume":"9","author":"Garrell","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B11","first-page":"213","article-title":"Facial expression imitation in human robot interaction","author":"Ge","year":"2008"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"83","DOI":"10.1007\/s10919-020-00347-x","article-title":"How weeping influences the perception of facial expressions: The signal value of tears","volume":"45","author":"Gra\u010danin","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Nonverbal Behav."},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"665","DOI":"10.1037\/pag0000373","article-title":"The influence of tears on older and younger adults\u2019 perceptions of sadness","volume":"34","author":"Grainger","year":"2019","journal-title":"Psychol. Aging"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.3200\/SOCP.148.1.22-42","article-title":"Social reactions to adult crying: The help-soliciting function of tears","volume":"148","author":"Hendriks","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"878","DOI":"10.1080\/02699930500450218","article-title":"Social messages of crying faces: Their influence on anticipated person perception, emotions and behavioural responses","volume":"20","author":"Hendriks","year":"2006","journal-title":"Cogn. Emot."},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"878","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2019.00878","article-title":"Emotional tears communicate sadness but not excessive emotions without other contextual knowledge","volume":"10","author":"Ito","year":"2019","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"513","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2014.p0513","article-title":"Babyloid","volume":"26","author":"Kanoh","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Robot. Mechatron."},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.1007\/s10846-010-9418-7","article-title":"Computational model of emotion generation for human\u2013robot interaction based on the cognitive appraisal theory","volume":"60","author":"Kim","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Intell. Robot. Syst."},{"key":"B19","first-page":"4584","article-title":"Development of expressive robotic head for bipedal humanoid robot","author":"Kishi","year":"2012"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2021.06.008","article-title":"Reading emotions, reading people: Emotion perception and inferences drawn from perceived emotions","volume":"43","author":"Lange","year":"2022","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Psychol."},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"418","DOI":"10.1007\/BF03324838","article-title":"Age-related differences in the ability to perceive sad facial expressions","volume":"18","author":"MacPherson","year":"2006","journal-title":"Aging Clin. Exp. Res."},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cognition.2015.09.008","article-title":"Navigating a social world with robot partners: A quantitative cartography of the uncanny valley","volume":"146","author":"Mathur","year":"2016","journal-title":"Cognition"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2023.3261137","article-title":"Social functions of machine emotional expressions","volume":"2023","author":"Melo","year":"2023","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"B24","first-page":"3588","article-title":"A new mental model for humanoid robots for human friendly communication introduction of learning system, mood vector and second order equations of emotion","author":"Miwa","year":"2003"},{"key":"B25","unstructured":"Poor communicator robots: How to deal with them well?\n            MotodaK.\n          2019"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2018.2833157","article-title":"A mass-produced sociable humanoid robot: pepper: The first machine of its kind","volume":"25","author":"Pandey","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"190","DOI":"10.1007\/BF03327383","article-title":"Adult aging and the perceived intensity of emotions in faces and stories","volume":"16","author":"Phillips","year":"2004","journal-title":"Aging Clin. Exp. Res."},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0251083","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0251083","article-title":"When animals cry: The effect of adding tears to animal expressions on human judgment","volume":"16","author":"Pic\u00f3","year":"2021","journal-title":"PLOS ONE"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.1177\/147470490900700107","article-title":"Tearing: Breakthrough in human emotional signaling","volume":"7","author":"Provine","year":"2009","journal-title":"Evol. Psychol."},{"key":"B30","volume-title":"The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people","author":"Reeves","year":"1996"},{"key":"B31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"245","DOI":"10.1145\/1514095.1514158","article-title":"How anthropomorphism affects empathy toward robots","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 4th ACM\/IEEE international conference on Human robot interaction","author":"Riek","year":"2009"},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-012-0173-8","article-title":"An experimental study on emotional reactions towards a robot","volume":"5","author":"Rosenthal-von der P\u00fctten","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"275","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-bioeng-071811-150036","article-title":"Robots for use in autism research","volume":"14","author":"Scassellati","year":"2012","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Biomed. Eng."},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1847","DOI":"10.1037\/a0038783","article-title":"Weep and get more: When and why sadness expression is effective in negotiations","volume":"100","author":"Sinaceur","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Appl. Psychol."},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"696","DOI":"10.1007\/s11031-019-09771-z","article-title":"The gender-specific impact of emotional tears","volume":"43","author":"Stadel","year":"2019","journal-title":"Motiv. Emot."},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"15924","DOI":"10.1038\/srep15924","article-title":"Measuring empathy for human and robot hand pain using electroencephalography","volume":"5","author":"Suzuki","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"B37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-017-0433-8","article-title":"Human-robot interaction in autism treatment: A case study on three pairs of autistic children as twins, siblings, and classmates","volume":"10","author":"Taheri","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9146","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-87827-2","article-title":"The effect of anime character\u2019s facial expressions and eye blinking on donation behavior","volume":"11","author":"Takagi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"B39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"17954","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0707769104","article-title":"Socialization between toddlers and robots at an early childhood education center","volume":"104","author":"Tanaka","year":"2007","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci."},{"key":"B40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"724","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2017.00724","article-title":"Emotional expression in simple line drawings of a robot's face leads to higher offers in the ultimatum game","volume":"8","author":"Terada","year":"2017","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"B41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"555","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-019-00524-z","article-title":"Multimodal integration of emotional signals from voice, body, and context: Effects of (In)Congruence on emotion recognition and attitudes towards robots","volume":"11","author":"Tsiourti","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"629","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-psych-020821-010855","article-title":"The social effects of emotions","volume":"73","author":"van Kleef","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ann. Rev. Psychol."},{"key":"B43","first-page":"71","article-title":"The situational and emotional context of adult crying","volume-title":"Adult crying: A biopsychosocial approach","author":"Vingerhoets","year":"2001"},{"key":"B44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"455","DOI":"10.1007\/s11031-016-9543-0","article-title":"The social impact of emotional tears","volume":"40","author":"Vingerhoets","year":"2016","journal-title":"Motiv. Emot."},{"key":"B45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198570240.001.0001","volume-title":"Why only humans weep: Unravelling the mysteries of tears","author":"Vingerhoets","year":"2013"},{"key":"B46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"410","DOI":"10.1037\/a0020240","article-title":"Making sense by making sentient: Effectance motivation increases anthropomorphism","volume":"99","author":"Waytz","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Pers. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-009-0024-4","article-title":"I love this dog\u2014children\u2019s emotional attachment to the robotic dog AIBO","volume":"1","author":"Weiss","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"B48","unstructured":"Tears come from my eyes Japan\u2019s reaction to developing a crying robot\n            YoonJ.\n          2021"},{"key":"B49","first-page":"381","article-title":"Whole body emotion expressions for KOBIAN humanoid robot \u2014 Preliminary experiments with different emotional patterns","author":"Zecca","year":"2009"},{"key":"B50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"313","DOI":"10.1177\/147470491100900304","article-title":"Age-Related changes in the signal value of tears","volume":"9","author":"Zeifman","year":"2011","journal-title":"Evol. Psychol."},{"key":"B51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e13662","DOI":"10.1111\/psyp.13662","article-title":"Tears of joy, aesthetic chills and heartwarming feelings: Physiological correlates of Kama Muta","volume":"57","author":"Zickfeld","year":"2020","journal-title":"Psychophysiol"},{"key":"B52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"104137","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jesp.2021.104137","article-title":"Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries","volume":"95","author":"Zickfeld","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Exp. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-014-0267-6","article-title":"Anthropomorphism: Opportunities and challenges in humanrobot interaction","volume":"7","author":"Z\u0142otowski","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Robotics and AI"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2023.1121624\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]],"date-time":"2023-06-01T05:01:16Z","timestamp":1685595676000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2023.1121624\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]]},"references-count":54,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/frobt.2023.1121624"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frobt.2023.1121624","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]]},"article-number":"1121624"}}