Humans can empathize with robots

Toyohashi Tech researchers in cooperation with researchers at Kyoto University have presented the first neurophysiological evidence of humans' ability to empathize with a robot in perceived pain. Event-related brain potentials in human observers, reflecting empathy with humanoid robots in perceived pain, were similar to those for other humans in pain, except at the beginning of the top-down process of empathy. This difference may be caused by humans' inability in taking a robot's perspective.