Empathetic Robot Judge, we Trust You

Information on the psychological mechanisms behind people's perceptions of robot judges in the courtroom is limited. We aimed to determine whether perceptions of empathy increase people's trust in robot judges and whether this trust influences people's evaluation of judgments by a robot judge and their acceptance of such judges in the courtroom. We conducted a web-based randomized experiment on December 27, 2022 with 738 Japanese participants aged 18 years or older. Participants viewed one of four short clips and completed a questionnaire. Data from 531 individuals were included in the analysis. Results showed that perception of the judge's empathy increased trust in that judge and impacted the judgment evaluation. Overall, participants perceived the human judge as significantly more empathetic than the robot judge. A perception of empathy from the robot judge was associated with a higher rate of accepting a robot judge in the courtroom via trust in that judge.