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.