Publications

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)
🏆 Nominated for Best Paper | 25% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ supplemental material ] [ video ]

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)
25% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ scale usage ] [ data analysis ] [ video ]

Enabling End Users to Program Robots Using Reinforcement Learning
Tewodros W. Ayalew*, Jennifer Wang*, Michael L. Littman, Blase Ur, Sarah Sebo
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025)
* equal contribution | 25% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ code ] [ supplemental material ]

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)
25% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ supplemental material ] [ video ]

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)
🏆 Nominated for Best Paper | 25% acceptance rate
[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)
25% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ code ] [ data analysis ] [ study video ] [ link ]

RoSI: A Model for Predicting Robot Social Influence
Hadas Erel*, Marynel Vázquez*, Sarah Sebo*, Nicole Salomons*, Sarah Gillet*, Brian Scassellati*
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
* equal contribution
[ 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
[ link ]

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)
28% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ Interactive IOS Scale for Multiparty Interactions ] [ data analysis code ]

Benefits of an Interactive Robot Character in Immersive Puzzle Games
Ting-Han Lin*, Spencer Ng*, Sarah Sebo
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022)
* equal contribution | 64% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] | [ code ]

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)
64% acceptance rate
[ 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)
64% acceptance rate
[ pdf ]

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)
[ link ]

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: Performance Science
[ 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
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (CogSci 2020)
63% acceptance rate
[ 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)
24% acceptance rate
[ pdf ] [ supplementary video ] [ 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)
[ link ] [ Yale News article ] [ Scientific American article ]

"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)
24% acceptance rate
[ pdf ]

Personalized Robot Tutoring using the Assistive Tutor POMDP (AT-POMDP)
Aditi Ramachandran*, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo*, Brian Scassellati
AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2019)
* equal contribution | 16% acceptance rate
[ 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)
23% acceptance rate
[ 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)
23% acceptance rate
[ 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)
47% acceptance rate
[ 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)
41% acceptance rate
[ pdf ]