Joint action with human versus robot partners across psychological domains: a systematic review
Abstract
When they act together, people engage a myriad of cognitive and social processes which are increasingly investigated in various areas of psychological and neuroscientific research. The study of human-robot joint action holds promises not only in terms of applying findings to robotics but also providing innovative methodologies that can help disentangle the determinants of human-human joint action. But, how does acting jointly with a robot compare to co-acting with a human? Research investigating this question is sparse and an overview of relevant findings is missing. Therefore, this paper provides a systematic review of the studies assessing differences and similarities between behavioral, neural, and/or subjective dimensions of human-human and human-robot joint action. After examining general trends in this research area, we analyze findings from 39 included studies in domains ranging from continuous and discrete action coordination, to verbal and non-verbal communication, to decision-making, sense of agency, and attitudes toward the partner. The quantitative or qualitative comparisons made in these articles show heterogeneity in terms of both findings and methodologies. In most domains, results regarding potential differences between human-human and human-robot conditions are nuanced. In conclusion, we highlight a few open questions and challenges for this research area and emphasize how examining human-robot joint action is valuable both in case of differences and similarities with its human-human counterpart.
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BibTeX
@article{navare2026joint,
title = {{Joint action with human versus robot partners across psychological domains: a systematic review}},
author = {Uma Prashant Navare and Amélie Marc and Ghiles Mostafaoui and Marwen Belkaid},
journal = {Acta Psychologica},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107410},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05753246v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Joint action with human versus robot partners across psychological domains: a systematic review
AU - Uma Prashant Navare
AU - Amélie Marc
AU - Ghiles Mostafaoui
AU - Marwen Belkaid
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/29
JO - Acta Psychologica
DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107410
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05753246v1
AB - When they act together, people engage a myriad of cognitive and social processes which are increasingly investigated in various areas of psychological and neuroscientific research. The study of human-robot joint action holds promises not only in terms of applying findings to robotics but also providing innovative methodologies that can help disentangle the determinants of human-human joint action. But, how does acting jointly with a robot compare to co-acting with a human? Research investigating this question is sparse and an overview of relevant findings is missing. Therefore, this paper provides a systematic review of the studies assessing differences and similarities between behavioral, neural, and/or subjective dimensions of human-human and human-robot joint action. After examining general trends in this research area, we analyze findings from 39 included studies in domains ranging from continuous and discrete action coordination, to verbal and non-verbal communication, to decision-making, sense of agency, and attitudes toward the partner. The quantitative or qualitative comparisons made in these articles show heterogeneity in terms of both findings and methodologies. In most domains, results regarding potential differences between human-human and human-robot conditions are nuanced. In conclusion, we highlight a few open questions and challenges for this research area and emphasize how examining human-robot joint action is valuable both in case of differences and similarities with its human-human counterpart.
SN - 0001-6918
SN - 1873-6297
ER -