People are faster at understanding human actions than robotic movements – study

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A new study suggesting people are faster at understanding human actions than robotic movements highlights potential challenges for a future where robots are incorporated more into our daily lives, researchers have said. The team compared people’s ability to ascribe intentions to humans, humanoid robots, and non-human-like animated objects by investigating how easily people understood the simple social cue of a gaze. The results showed that people were faster to infer the mental content of human agents compared to robotic agents, suggesting that people process human actions differently to robotic actions. “We tested how easily people understand the simple social cue of a gaze – humans predict other people’s behaviour by looking at their eyes.