# Robots as Mental Well-being Coaches: Design and Ethical Recommendations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.14874 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14874/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 31 Aug 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Multimodal Gender Fairness in Depression Prediction: Insights on Data from the USA & China](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.04026/) (2024)
- [Underneath the Numbers: Quantitative and Qualitative Gender Fairness in LLMs for Depression Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08183/) (2024)
- [Who Owns The Robot?: Four Ethical and Socio-technical Questions about Wellbeing Robots in the Real World through Community Engagement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.02624/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The last decade has shown a growing interest in robots as well-being coaches. However, insightful guidelines for the design of robots as coaches to promote mental well-being have not yet been proposed. This paper details design and ethical recommendations based on a qualitative analysis drawing on a grounded theory approach, which was conducted with a three-step iterative design process which included user-centered design studies involving robotic well-being coaches, namely: (1) a user-centred design study conducted with 11 participants consisting of both prospective users who had participated in a Brief Solution-Focused Practice study with a human coach, as well as coaches of different disciplines, (2) semi-structured individual interview data gathered from 20 participants attending a Positive Psychology intervention study with the robotic well-being coach Pepper, and (3) a user-centred design study conducted with 3 participants of the Positive Psychology study as well as 2 relevant well-being coaches. After conducting a thematic analysis and a qualitative analysis, we collated the data gathered into convergent and divergent themes, and we distilled from those results a set of design guidelines and ethical considerations. Our findings can inform researchers and roboticists on the key aspects to take into account when designing robotic mental well-being coaches.