Attachment theory is a research area in psychology that has enjoyed decades of successful study, and has subsequently become explored in realms beyond that of the original infant-caregiver bonds. We discuss attachment in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) using a notion of weak attachment and strong attachment before setting both as distinct ends of a spectrum of attachment. This more nuanced, multi-dimensional representation of attachment allows us to present a clarified categorization of where various human-robot bonds explored in HRI studies fit on the spectrum, where robots in general could place, and how a clearer definition of human-robot attachment can benefit future HRI studies.
@article{rabbetal21ijsr,
title={An Attachment Framework for Human-Robot Interaction},
author={Nicholas Rabb and Theresa Law and Meia Chita-Tegmark and Matthias Scheutz},
year={2021},
journal={International Journal of Social Robotics},
url={https://hrilab.tufts.edu/publications/rabbetal21ijsr.pdf}
}