When it comes to research in psychology, human experience, perception, and behaviour are core subjects. On this basis, robotic psychology focuses on how humans experience intelligent machines, how they behave towards these intelligent machines, and how the needs of different groups of people can be taken into account when it comes to technology development.

Established in 2018, the JKU Robopsychology Lab at the Linz Institute of Technology currently conducts research under the direction of Prof. Martina Mara and focuses on, among other things, the following topics:

• Why do machines that seem too human come across as "uncanny" to us and in what context is this truly the case?
• Just how do people and robots interact in the workplace and what does it take to create trust?
• How does an intelligent machine's comprehensibility and predictability relate to its users' sense of control and safety?
• What effect do synthetic voices, such as Alexa and Siri, bring about and how important is it to be able to distinguish between human speakers and machine speakers?