Effectiveness of a Humorous Robot in Reducing Anxiety in Clinical Procedures

Social robots are a new and promising tool for reducing children's anxiety during medical procedures. Our study aims to design and test a social robot to alleviate anxiety and improve emotional state before dental treatment for children. The design of the experimental condition included asocial robot (Vizzy) with different comedic styles such as jokes, riddles, games, and dance, to make the waiting room experience more engaging and entertaining for children. A user study (N=22) was conducted, in which children were assigned to one of two groups: interaction with the humanoid Vizzy robot, or waiting in the dentist's waiting room without any interaction with the robot (Control). The results indicate a significant impact of the experimental condition on reducing anxiety levels and improving emotional responses, demonstrating that social robots can be considered for future research to reduce children's anxiety before distressing medical procedures.