As robots increasingly enter people's everyday lives, it becomes ever more important to explore the conditions and determinants of acceptance of human interactions with these devices. Moreover, a positive feeling associated with the interaction with robots is a precondition for the user's willingness to engage in further interactions and establish long-term relationships. This article presents empirical results from two studies that focus on the user's perception of the robot rabbit Nabaztag, a small WiFi-enabled device with movable ears, integrated RFID reader functionality, and speech-synthesis capability. In the first study, 53 participants were confronted with a range of the Nabaztag's functionality, and, using RFID cards, they interacted with the rabbit. The analysis of people's answers concerning Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness as well as hedonic and pragmatic aspects, showed gender-accorded differences regarding the evaluation of the device. Neither the degree of familiarity with computers nor the fact of whether technical disfunctionality occurred during the trial influenced the evaluation of the robot, while ownership of a robotic toy let people evaluate the Nabaztag more positively. The second study took a more detailed observance of the effect of the rabbit's expression by its ears. In a within-subjects setting, a German (N = 100) and a U.S. American sample (N = 111) were asked to rate the rabbit's current emotional status from pictures that showed the rabbit with a variety of six different ear positions. Results indicate that people infer specific emotional states from the robot rabbit's different ear positions. Also illustrated is that observers' attribution of feelings to the rabbit depends on their cultural backgrounds. Implications and questions for future research are discussed.

Communication scholars are increasingly concerned with interactions between humans and communicative agents. These agents, however, are considerably different from digital or social media: They are designed and perceived as life-like communication partners (i.e., as “communicative subjects”), which in turn poses distinct challenges for their empirical study. Hence, in this paper, we document, discuss, and evaluate potentials and pitfalls that typically arise for communication scholars when investigating simulated or non-simulated interactions between humans and chatbots, voice assistants, or social robots. In this paper, we focus on experiments (including pre-recorded stimuli, vignettes and the “Wizard of Oz”-technique) and field studies. Overall, this paper aims to provide guidance and support for communication scholars who want to empirically study human-machine communication. To this end, we not only compile potential challenges, but also recommend specific strategies and approaches. In addition, our reflections on current methodological challenges serve as a starting point for discussions in communication science on how meaning-making between humans and machines can be investigated in the best way possible, as illustrated in the concluding section.

Virtual Reality (VR) holds great potential for new didactic concepts in teaching, since environments, information and objects can be represented and manipulated digitally. Especially when it comes to training environments that include potentially dangerous processes, are expensive or bring the risk of damage to important tools, VR offers an alternative way of approaching a new subject. This paper presents a VR-application used in the studies of mechanical engineering. It includes the virtual representation of a Hermle CNC C42U milling machine, which serves to acquire basic knowledge in controlling such a system, avoiding safety risks and logistical constraints. Results from an evaluation with the target group show a good usability and (perceived) impact on the user’s learning gain.

Social media platforms provide opportunities for users across the world to connect and communicate between them and engage into acts of social support and entertainment. Yet it can also bring negative consequences as it has been associated with poor mental health and life dissatisfaction. This underlines the importance of delivering social media literacy (SML) interventions that raise awareness of the dangers and threats that are hidden within. To this date, SML initiatives have shown their benefits towards the acquisition of SML skills through the forms of school interventions and mini-games. However, studies on promoting SML through social media platforms need to be also encouraged and innovative approaches to provide interactive scenarios with hands-on experiences need to be formulated. Hence, the project COURAGE introduces a new approach towards SML by proposing the integration of educational opportunities within a controlled social media platform. To provide students the opportunity to learn whilst they naturally explore social media we propose the integration of virtual learning companions. In this paper we report seven empirical approaches towards SML skills acquisition powered by virtual learning companions. The paper concludes with a discussion towards the benefits and limitations of using this type of SML interventions.

Social media are offering new opportunities for communication and interaction way beyond what was possible only a few years ago. However, social media are also virtual spaces where young people are exposed to a variety of threats. Digital addiction, discrimination, hate speech, misinformation, polarization as well as manipulative influences of algorithms, body stereotyping, and cyberbullying are examples of challenges that find fertile ground on social media. Educators and students are not adequately prepared to face these challenges. To this aim, the COURAGE project, presented in this paper, introduces new tools and learning methodologies that can be adopted within higher education learning paths to train educators to deal with social media threats. The overarching principles of the COURAGE project leverage the most recent advances in the fields of artificial intelligence and in the educational domain paired with social and media psychological insights to support the development of the COURAGE ecosystem. The results of the experiments currently implemented with teachers and students of secondary schools as well as the impact of the COURAGE project on societal changes and ethical questions are presented and discussed.