The Case for Negotiation Robots in simulated workplace negotiations A Theoretical Approach

Job negotiations are an anxiety-inducing and highly important form of social interaction. Most people are not sufficiently trained in negotiation strategies and often do not receive job offers that are conducive to financial stability. With the rise of virtual agents and robotics that are capable of modeling social interactions, a significant research effort has been established to create realistic simulations of negotiations. While the bulk of this research has focused on virtual agents as a medium for simulated negotiations, we propose that embodied agents can be utilized to model the inherent nuances in human interaction. In this paper, we propose a study that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of embodied agents compared to virtual agents in simulated negotiations with human participants.