Study by Cliff Nass et al which had subjects perform a task on a computer before being asked to rate the computer’s performance. When asked to rate it using a different computer, the participants were more honest and more negative about how the computer performed than when they were asked to complete the rating on the same computer. The subjects appeared to have an instinct to protect the computer’s “feelings”.

In a workshop performed by Kate Darling and her team they gave 30 people 5 robot dinosaurs. They spent 45 minutes building clothes for the robot using pipe cleaners and after bonding with their companion they were given a hammer and a hatchet and told to destroy the robot. Of the 30 25-40 year olds bot a single person agreed to hurt their robot. It was the organisers threatened to destroy every robot if nobody destroyed one that a volunteer stood up and solemnly brought the hatchet down on the neck of the robot.

Autistic children benefit from interactions with robots as it can train empathy without the complexity of human interactions.
The elderly are finding companionship in robots where pets would not be suitable given the fragility of an actual living creature. It allows these people to care for something rather than exist solely as the recipient of other people’s care.