These days robots are being created to do a number of menial tasks which can be hazardous, repetitive and tiring for human beings to perform. Scientists working on robots for the future envision making them actual companions and care givers to humans. It would be a boon to know that your eighty year old aunt is being constantly monitored by a personal robot who ensure that she is served her meals on time, takes her correct medication periodically, and even goes off for a constitutional walk each morning.

All this can become a reality in the future when robots are able to function with greater autonomy. However today when you look at a life like robot that looks like a person but doesn’t have the same fluency of movement and speech that you would expect from a real person, how do you feel? A scientific study will be able to shed more light on this aspect soon.

In most cases people feel equally drawn and repelled by robots that look like humans. This affection and aversion is caused by the way our brain processes what we see. It looks like a person but does not act and speak like a person, so there is an error in what is perceived. While we are aware that its a robot on a conscious level at an inner level we have not truly processed this detail leading to the mixed reaction