Social Robots for People Living with Dementia: A Scoping Review on Deception from Design to Perception

Abstract As social robots are increasingly introduced into dementia care, their embodied and interactive design may blur the boundary between artificial and lifelike entities, raising ethical concerns about robotic deception. In this context, it remains unclear which specific design cues of social robots might lead to social robotic deception (SRD) in people living with dementia (PLwD), and which perceptions and responses of PLwD might indicate that SRD is taking place. To address these questions, we conducted a scoping review of 26 empirical studies reporting PLwD interacting with social robots. We identified four key design cue categories used in social robots for PLwD. Moreover, we identified six recurring patterns in how PLwD perceive and respond to social robots. The reviewed papers did not provide sufficient evidence to determine which specific design cues lead to SRD, nor to exactly identify when and to what extent SRD actually occurs. Building on these results, we put forward a call-to-action for the Human-Robot Interaction scholarship working with PLwD, and propose a dual-process definition of SRD, that conceptualizes SRD for the specific context of dementia.