Potential Applications of Social Robots in Robot-Assisted Interventions for Social Anxiety

Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is a condition characterized by debilitating fear and avoidance of different social situations. We provide an overview of social anxiety and evidence-based behavioural and cognitive treatment approaches for this condition. However, treatment avoidance and attrition are high in this clinical population, which calls for innovative approaches, including computer-based interventions, that could minimize barriers to treatment and enhance treatment effectiveness. After reviewing existing assistive technologies for mental health interventions, we provide an overview of how social robots have been used in many clinical interventions. We then propose to integrate social robots in conventional behavioural and cognitive therapies for both children and adults who struggle with social anxiety. We categorize the different therapeutic roles that social robots can potentially play in activities rooted in conventional therapies for social anxiety and oriented towards symptom reduction, social skills development, and improvement in overall quality of life. We discuss possible applications of robots in this context through four scenarios. These scenarios are meant as ‘food for thought’ for the research community which we hope will inspire future research. We discuss risks and concerns for using social robots in clinical practice. This article concludes by highlighting the potential advantages as well as limitations of integrating social robots in conventional interventions to improve accessibility and standard of care as well as outlining future steps in relation to this research direction. Clearly recognizing the need for future empirical work in this area, we propose that social robots may be an effective component in robot-assisted interventions for social anxiety, not replacing, but complementing the work of clinicians. We hope that this article will spark new research, and research collaborations in the highly interdisciplinary field of robot-assisted interventions for social anxiety.