Autonomy – Attachment
The user can develop an emotional dependency on the robot, reducing the autonomy.
Attachment in human-robot interaction refers to the emotional bond users may develop toward a robot, ranging from mild affinity to deep dependency. While such attachment can support engagement and perceived companionship, it also raises concerns about emotional reliance, especially when robots are designed for long-term or intimate interaction. The central issue is not whether attachment emerges, but when it becomes strong enough to displace or distort human relationships, expectations, or emotional balance in everyday life.
From a value perspective, attachment is generally treated as a risk to autonomy. Robots that provide companionship or emotional support may unintentionally foster dependency, where users begin to rely on them as primary sources of comfort or routine. This can reduce engagement with other people and increase vulnerability to distress when the robot is unavailable or removed. In focus group discussions, this was often framed as a tension: while emotional bonding can make interaction meaningful, excessive attachment is considered undesirable due to the artificial and replaceable nature of the robot. Even in contexts where attachment might resemble therapeutic relationships in human care, the absence of a genuine reciprocal social bond changes how this dependency is ethically interpreted.
Empirical and design-oriented studies repeatedly highlight how easily attachment can emerge in practice. In social companion settings, anthropomorphism has been shown to increase emotional bonding, sometimes leading participants to describe the robot as a friend or emotionally significant presence. In educational contexts, concerns are raised that children may form strong bonds with robots, prompting worries from parents and teachers about over-reliance or emotional confusion. Similar patterns appear in long-term deployments with older adults, where users move from initial expectations to routine integration and even grief when interaction ends. In some cases, users report anxiety or sadness when the robot is absent, or preference for the robot over human peers. Therapeutic and care settings also show strong emotional responses, with studies of Paro illustrating affection despite full awareness of its artificial nature. Across education and caregiving contexts, stakeholders consistently express concern about over-attachment, particularly for children and vulnerable users. At the same time, researchers acknowledge that minimizing attachment entirely is difficult, even when full disclosure and transparency about the robot's limitations are provided and when users explicitly recognize its artificial nature.
Excerpts from the paper:
About the value "Autonomy"
With autonomy, we refer to the freedom of thinking, without being under the influence of external agents. The concept differs from being physically autonomous from others, which we refer to as agency, as suggested by experts during the focus groups. During the scoping review, this value was initially linked to independence. However, the focus groups participants recommended separating it from independence because autonomy specifically refers to making decisions without external impositions. They emphasised that autonomy should focus on enhancing the user's ability to make their own decisions, rather than on the robot's capabilities. When a robot assists in decision-making, it should support the user's best interests and enable them to accomplish tasks they otherwise could not.
About "Attachment"
While robots can provide valuable companionship, there is a risk that users develop an emotional dependency on them. This could lead to isolation from other people, as highlighted during the focus groups. The user should not be allowed to form an excessive attachment to the robot when it impersonates a professional providing mental and emotional support. This reflects what happens between a patient and a human carer. However, attachment is still regarded as problematic in the case of a companion robot, even though the doctor-patient relationship does not play a role. Excessive attachment is thus always regarded as undesirable due to the artificial nature of the robot.