[HRI 2026 Pioneers] Understanding the Formation of Human-Robot Rapport to Facilitate Positive Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction
Abstract
As robots integrate into everyday settings, they must build positive relationships with people to ensure their long-term use. These relationships are characterized by “rapport,” which involves mutual understanding and interpersonal connection. However, there are no effective scales that measure human-robot rapport in various scenarios, and there are few studies that explore how human-robot rapport is developed and sustained over time. We discuss our prior, current, and future works that operationalize human-robot rapport, understand factors that affect rapport across sessions, and test how robot behaviors can sustain rapport in the long term. In our prior work, we developed the Connection-Coordination Rapport (CCR) Scale to measure human-robot rapport. In our current work, we use this scale to investigate how a robot’s social behaviors (empathy, self-disclosure) influence rapport in a three-session study. Finally, our future work will explore how a robot leverages prior conversations with the user to sustain rapport over three weeks.
