This paper introduces a multimethod framework for studying spatial and social dynamics in real-world group-agent interactions with socially interactive agents. Drawing on proxemics and bonding theories, the method combines subjective self-reports and objective spatial tracking. Applied in two field studies in a museum (N = 187) with a robot and a virtual agent, the paper addresses the challenges in aligning human perception and behavior. We focus on presenting an open source, scalable, and field-tested toolkit for future studies.
@article{arxiv.2506.11829,
title = {The Space Between Us: A Methodological Framework for Researching Bonding and Proxemics in Situated Group-Agent Interactions},
author = {Ana Müller and Anja Richert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11829},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for presentation at the Workshop on Advancing Group Understanding and Robots' Adaptive Behavior (GROUND), held at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) Conference 2025, Genoa, Italy