Humans Can Empathize with Robots
From: ECN - 11/03/2015

Empathy is a basic human ability. We often feel empathy toward and console
others in distress. Is it possible for us to emphasize with humanoid robots?
Since robots are becoming increasingly popular and common in our daily lives,
it is necessary to understand our interaction with robots in social
situations.

However, it is not clear how the human brain responds to robots in empathic
situations.

Now, researchers at the Department of Information Science and Engineering,
Toyohashi University of Technology in collaboration with researchers at the
Department of Psychology, Kyoto University have found the first
neurophysiological evidence of humans' ability to empathize with robots in
perceived pain and highlighted the difference in human empathy toward other
humans and robots.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2015/11/humans-can-empathize-robots
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/tuot-hce102915.php

Links:
Toyohashi University of Technology
http://www.tut.ac.jp/english

Michiteru Kitazaki
http://www.tut.ac.jp/english/schools/faculty/cs/564.html
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michiteru_Kitazaki

People Feel Only Slightly Less Empathy for Robots Than for Humans 
http://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/11/people-feel-only-slightly-less-empathy-robots-humans

Empathizing with Human-like Robots
http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2015/11/empathizing-human-robots