# Survey and Perspective on Social Emotions in Robotics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09647 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09647/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 110 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 May 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3781/) (2013)
- [OpenPose: Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08008/) (2018)
- [Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.08050/) (2016)
- [Curriculum Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10382/) (2021)
- [Symbol Emergence in Robotics: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.08973/) (2015)
- [Emotion in Reinforcement Learning Agents and Robots: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.05172/) (2017)
- [Unsupervised Adversarial Learning of 3D Human Pose from 2D Joint Locations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.08244/) (2018)
- [Robot self/other distinction: active inference meets neural networks learning in a mirror](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05473/) (2020)
- [Deep Emotion: A Computational Model of Emotion Using Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.08447/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [World Models and Predictive Coding for Cognitive and Developmental Robotics: Frontiers and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05832/) (2023)
- [Social Comparison without Explicit Inference of Others' Reward Values: A Constructive Approach Using a Probabilistic Generative Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.18687/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study reviews research on social emotions in robotics. In robotics, the study of emotions has been pursued for a long time, including the study of their recognition, expression, and computational modeling of the basic mechanisms which underlie them. Research has advanced according to well-known psychological findings, such as category and dimension theories. Many studies have been based on these basic theories, addressing only basic emotions. However, social emotions, also referred to as higher-level emotions, have been studied in psychology. We believe that these higher-level emotions are worth pursuing in robotics for next-generation, socially aware robots. In this review paper, we summarize the findings on social emotions in psychology and neuroscience, along with a survey of the studies on social emotions in robotics that have been conducted to date. Thereafter, research directions toward the implementation of social emotions in robots are discussed.