Publications

2026

Fictional vs. Factual Robot Tutor Dialogue Can Shape Child Social-Emotional Learning
Lauren L. Wright, Kaitlyn Li, Hewitt Watkins, Kiljoong Kim, and Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2026)
Can You Help Me? The Influence of Robot Requests for Help on Child-Robot Connection
Teresa Flanagan, Justin Chenjia Zhang, Lin Bian, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2026)
Customizing Robot Personality: How Personality Control and Form Factor Shape Perceptions of a Robot as a Social Agent
Alex Wuqi Zhang, Aaron Huang, Allison J. Li, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2026)

2025

The Impact of a Robot's Agreement (or Disagreement) on Human-Human Interpersonal Closeness in a Two-Person Decision-Making Task
Ting-Han Lin, Yuval Rubin Kopelman, Madeline Busse, Sarah Sebo*, Hadas Erel* (* equal contribution)
Computers and Human Behavior, 108807
Link PDF
Robotic Reading Companions Can Mitigate Oral Reading Anxiety in Children
Lauren L. Wright, Pooja Vegesna, Joseph E. Michaelis, Bilge Mutlu, Sarah Sebo
Science Robotics 10(106), eadu5771
Link PDF Supplemental UChicago News UChicago CS News
"I Know That Other Robot, You Can Turn Them Off": Ingroup Robots Elicit Lower Compliance to Instructions that Undermine Another Robot
Lauren L. Wright, Andrew K. Dang, Sarah Sebo
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2025)
PDF Supplemental Video
Balancing User Control and Perceived Robot Social Agency through the Design of End-User Robot Programming Interfaces
Alex Wuqi Zhang, Rafael Queiroz, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025)
🏆 Best Paper Award Finalist
PDF Supplemental Video UChicago CS News
Connection-Coordination Rapport (CCR) Scale: A Dual-Factor Scale to Measure Human-Robot Rapport
Ting-Han Lin, Hannah Dinner, Tsz Long Leung, Bilge Mutlu, J. Gregory Trafton, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025)
PDF Scale Usage Code Video
Enabling End Users to Program Robots Using Reinforcement Learning
Tewodros W. Ayalew*, Jennifer Wang*, Michael L. Littman, Blase Ur, Sarah Sebo (* equal contribution)
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025)
PDF Code Supplemental
Exploring Robot Personality Traits and Their Influence on User Affect and Experience
Alex Wuqi Zhang, Clark Kovacs, Liberto de Pablo, Justin Zhang, Maggie Bai, Sooyeon Jeong, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025)
PDF Supplemental Video NPR Financial Times

2024

A Taxonomy of Robot Autonomy for Human-Robot Interaction
Stephanie Kim, Jacy Reese Anthis, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2024)
🏆 Best Paper Award Finalist
Link
Role-Playing with Robot Characters: Increasing User Engagement through Narrative and Gameplay Agency
Spencer Ng, Ting-Han Lin, You Li, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2024)
PDF Code Data Analysis Video
RoSI: A Model for Predicting Robot Social Influence
Hadas Erel*, Marynel Vázquez*, Sarah Sebo*, Nicole Salomons*, Sarah Gillet*, Brian Scassellati* (* equal contribution)
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 13(2), 1-22
Link
Interaction-Shaping Robotics: Robots that Influence Interactions between Other Agents
Sarah Gillet, Marynel Vázquez, Sean Andrist, Iolanda Leite, Sarah Sebo
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 13(1), 1-23
Link

2023

Ice-Breaking Technology: Robots and Computers Can Foster Meaningful Connections between Strangers through In-Person Conversations
Alex Wuqi Zhang, Ting-Han Lin, Xuan Zhao, Sarah Sebo
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023)
PDF Interactive IOS Scale Data Analysis Code UChicago CS News

2022

Benefits of an Interactive Robot Character in Immersive Puzzle Games
Ting-Han Lin*, Spencer Ng*, Sarah Sebo (* equal contribution)
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022)
PDF Code UChicago CS News
Parental Responses to Aggressive Child Behavior towards Robots, Smart Speakers, and Tablets
Keziah Naggita, Elsa Athiley, Beza Desta, Sarah Sebo
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022)
PDF
Physical Touch from a Robot Caregiver: Examining Factors that Shape Patient Experience
Alex Mazursky, Madeleine DeVoe, Sarah Sebo
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022)
PDF

2021

A Minority of One against a Majority of Robots: Robots Cause Normative and Informational Conformity
Nicole Salomons, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Meiying Qin, Brian Scassellati
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 10(2), 1-22
Link

2020

The Influence of Robot Verbal Support on Human Team Members: Encouraging Outgroup Contributions and Suppressing Ingroup Supportive Behavior
Sarah Sebo, Ling Liang Dong, Nicholas Chang, Michal Lewkowicz, Michael Schutzman, Brian Scassellati
Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 590181
Link
Robots in Groups and Teams: A Literature Review
Sarah Sebo, Brett Stoll, Brian Scassellati, Malte F. Jung
ACM Conference on Computer Supportive Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2020)
PDF
Perceived Agency of a Social Norm Violating Robot
Shannon Yasuda, Devon Doheny, Nicole Salomons, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Brian Scassellati
Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2020)
PDF
Strategies for the Inclusion of Human Members within Human-Robot Teams
Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Ling Liang Dong, Nicholas Chang, Brian Scassellati
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2020)
PDF Video Presentation
Vulnerable Robots Positively Shape Human Conversational Dynamics in a Human-Robot Team
Margaret Traeger, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Malte Jung, Brian Scassellati, Nicholas Christakis
Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS), 117(12), 6370-6375
Link Yale News Scientific American

Before 2020

"I Don't Believe You": Investigating the Effects of Robot Trust Violation and Repair
Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Priyanka Krishnamurthi, Brian Scassellati
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2019)
PDF
Personalized Robot Tutoring using the Assistive Tutor POMDP (AT-POMDP)
Aditi Ramachandran*, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo*, Brian Scassellati (* equal contribution)
AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2019)
PDF
The Ripple Effects of Vulnerability: The Effects of a Robot's Vulnerable Behavior on Trust in Human-Robot Teams
Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Margaret Traeger, Malte Jung, Brian Scassellati
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2018)
PDF
Humans Conform to Robots: Disambiguating Trust, Truth, and Conformity
Nicole Salomons, Michael Van der Linden, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Brian Scassellati
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2018)
PDF
Improving Human-Human Collaboration Between Children With a Social Robot
Sarah Strohkorb, Ethan Fukuto, Natalie Warren, Charles Taylor, Bobby Berry, Brian Scassellati
IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2016)
PDF
Classification of Children's Social Dominance in Group Interactions with Robots
Sarah Strohkorb, Iolanda Leite, Natalie Warren, Brian Scassellati
ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2015)
PDF