Empathetic Negative Feedback

roviding negative feedback in a sympathetic way requires three subactions: facing the interaction partner to signal that your attention is focused on them and providing an indication of negative output, paired with an expression of comfort to express empathy. While human express disapproval and incorrectness mainly through verbal output, gestures and mimics, robots can use other modalities that are commonly known from technical devices, such as a red light or descending sound. Comforting actions are often accompanied by touch and physical closeness. While being touched by a robot might have contrary effects, it is possible for the robot to decrease the distance towards the user to express sympathy. Further details about the three subactions can be found in the descriptions of the Atomic Patterns “Attentive, “Indication of Incorrectness” and “Comforting the user”.