Moral Emotions, Robots, and their Role in Managing Stigma in Early Stage Parkinson’s Disease Caregiving
Abstract
Early stage Parkinson’s disease is characterized
by facial masking that reduces the ability for a caregiver to effectively comprehend the emotional state of a patient. We are
studying the introduction of a robotic co-mediator to increase the communicative bandwidth in this relationship for fostering empathic response in the caregiver. This requires modeling
moral emotions in the patient, the patient, such as shame and
embarrassment, while looking for lack of congruence in the
caregiver regarding the perception of the emotional state of the
patient. Having the robot exhibit suitable kinesic behavior in response is intended to drive the relationship towards
acceptable social and medical treatment norms.