In a recent study, a dog and a robotic version were about equally effective at relieving the loneliness of nursing home residents.This builds on previous findings by the researchers that frequent dog visits decreased loneliness of nursing home residents. Stanford University has a team working on building a home-assistance robot but was not involved in the study, though they felt the research was very encouraging.
"If humans can feel an emotional bond with robots, even fairly simple ones, some day they could "not just be our assistants, but also our companions."
To test whether residents responded better to a trained therapy dog, or a robot dog, researchers divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups at a trio of facilities in St. Louis.
One group had weekly, 30-minute one-on-one visits with the live dog; another group had similar visits with the mechanized version; a control group did not visit with either dog. Their level of loneliness — determined by residents' answers to several questions — was tested at the beginning and near the end of eight weeks of visits.
So when you abandon your family members, know that both flesh and blood companions and robot ones will both do just fine...just see which is going to fit your budget.
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