The benefit of being physically present: A survey of experimental works comparing copresent robots, telepresent robots and virtual agents

• Survey identified 33 works exploring user responses to physical robots and virtual agents.
• Robot agents had greater influence when physically present than telepresent.
• No differences were found between physical robots displayed on a screen and virtual agents that looked similar.
• Physical presence, but not physical embodiment alone, resulted in more favorable responses from participants.

The effects of physical embodiment and physical presence were explored through a survey of 33 experimental works comparing how people interacted with physical robots and virtual agents. A qualitative assessment of the direction of quantitative effects demonstrated that robots were more persuasive and perceived more positively when physically present in a user׳s environment than when digitally-displayed on a screen either as a video feed of the same robot or as a virtual character analog; robots also led to better user performance when they were collocated as opposed to shown via video on a screen. However, participants did not respond differently to physical robots and virtual agents when both were displayed digitally on a screen – suggesting that physical presence, rather than physical embodiment, characterizes people׳s responses to social robots. Implications for understanding psychological response to physical and virtual agents and for methodological design are discussed.