Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game

The emergence of social robots has created new opportunities for them to coexist with humans, but only if they can imitate human-like social behavior. Previous research has examined various robot social cues, such as emotions, gestures, and eye contact. However, an area that has been under-researche...

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Main Authors: Yotaro Fuse, Biina Ashida, Emmanuel Ayedoun, Masataka Tokumaru
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10100923/
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author Yotaro Fuse
Biina Ashida
Emmanuel Ayedoun
Masataka Tokumaru
author_facet Yotaro Fuse
Biina Ashida
Emmanuel Ayedoun
Masataka Tokumaru
author_sort Yotaro Fuse
collection DOAJ
description The emergence of social robots has created new opportunities for them to coexist with humans, but only if they can imitate human-like social behavior. Previous research has examined various robot social cues, such as emotions, gestures, and eye contact. However, an area that has been under-researched is the concept of implicit group norms, which are unwritten rules dictating the expected behavior of group members and can differ across different groups. By improving the ability of robots to behave in expected ways, we hope to considerable greater acceptance of robots among humans. In this study, we propose a group norm-aware decision-making model to help robots adapt to group norms, which we evaluated in a human–agent experiment based on the ultimatum game. In this scenario, the gains and losses of one group member affect everyone else. Our results demonstrate that a group norm-aware decision-making agent promotes fairer distributions of benefits among group members, enhancing mutual benefit compared with an agent that does not consider group norms. This study provides a solid foundation for further research in developing social robots that are more adaptable and acceptable to humans. Additionally, our proposed model sets the stage for future robot experiments, ultimately leading to the emergence of more equitable and empathetic human–robot interactions.
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spelling doaj.art-8fd293d18c704eb480964294463afee92023-04-18T23:00:25ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-0111367273674010.1109/ACCESS.2023.326639710100923Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum GameYotaro Fuse0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3429-541XBiina Ashida1Emmanuel Ayedoun2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1041-6731Masataka Tokumaru3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5649-997XDepartment of Intelligent Robotics, Toyama Prefectural University, Imizu, Toyama, JapanDepartment of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Kansai University, Suita, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Kansai University, Suita, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Kansai University, Suita, Osaka, JapanThe emergence of social robots has created new opportunities for them to coexist with humans, but only if they can imitate human-like social behavior. Previous research has examined various robot social cues, such as emotions, gestures, and eye contact. However, an area that has been under-researched is the concept of implicit group norms, which are unwritten rules dictating the expected behavior of group members and can differ across different groups. By improving the ability of robots to behave in expected ways, we hope to considerable greater acceptance of robots among humans. In this study, we propose a group norm-aware decision-making model to help robots adapt to group norms, which we evaluated in a human–agent experiment based on the ultimatum game. In this scenario, the gains and losses of one group member affect everyone else. Our results demonstrate that a group norm-aware decision-making agent promotes fairer distributions of benefits among group members, enhancing mutual benefit compared with an agent that does not consider group norms. This study provides a solid foundation for further research in developing social robots that are more adaptable and acceptable to humans. Additionally, our proposed model sets the stage for future robot experiments, ultimately leading to the emergence of more equitable and empathetic human–robot interactions.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10100923/Fairnessgroup normhuman–agent interactionhuman–robot interactioninteractive reinforcement learningsocial robot
spellingShingle Yotaro Fuse
Biina Ashida
Emmanuel Ayedoun
Masataka Tokumaru
Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
IEEE Access
Fairness
group norm
human–agent interaction
human–robot interaction
interactive reinforcement learning
social robot
title Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
title_full Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
title_fullStr Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
title_full_unstemmed Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
title_short Unleashing Fairness: How a Group Norm-Aware Agent Shakes Up the Ultimatum Game
title_sort unleashing fairness how a group norm aware agent shakes up the ultimatum game
topic Fairness
group norm
human–agent interaction
human–robot interaction
interactive reinforcement learning
social robot
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10100923/
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AT biinaashida unleashingfairnesshowagroupnormawareagentshakesuptheultimatumgame
AT emmanuelayedoun unleashingfairnesshowagroupnormawareagentshakesuptheultimatumgame
AT masatakatokumaru unleashingfairnesshowagroupnormawareagentshakesuptheultimatumgame