Designing Persuasive Social Robots for Health Behavior Change: A Systematic Review of Behavior Change Strategies and Evaluation Methods

TL;DR

This systematic review analyzes how social robots are designed and evaluated for health behavior change, identifying key strategies and assessment methods to guide future research and development in this field.

Contribution

It categorizes existing behavior change strategies and evaluation practices, providing design heuristics and research directions for social robot interventions in health behavior change.

Findings

Four main behavior change strategies identified: coaching, counseling, social influence, persuasion.

Current evaluation practices vary in design, setting, duration, and outcome measures.

Provides design heuristics and future research directions for health-focused social robots.

Abstract

Social robots are increasingly applied as health behavior change interventions, yet actionable knowledge to guide their design and evaluation remains limited. This systematic review synthesizes (1) the behavior change strategies used in existing HRI studies employing social robots to promote health behavior change, and (2) the evaluation methods applied to assess behavior change outcomes. Relevant literature was identified through systematic database searches and hand searches. Analysis of 39 studies revealed four overarching categories of behavior change strategies: coaching strategies, counseling strategies, social influence strategies, and persuasion-enhancing strategies. These strategies highlight the unique affordances of social robots as behavior change interventions and offer valuable design heuristics. The review also identified key characteristics of current evaluation practices, including study designs, settings, durations, and outcome measures, on the basis of which we propose several directions for future HRI research.