Friendship and Trust in Human - Robot Relationships: A Narrative Review

Liviu Octavian Mafteiu-Scai, Emanuela Jana Mafteiu-Scai

© 2026 Liviu Octavian Mafteiu-Scai, published by UIKTEN. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Citation Information: SAR Journal. Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 165-171, ISSN 2619-9955, https://doi.org/10.18421/SAR93-02, September 2026.

Received: 11 May 2026.
Revised: 17 August 2026.
Accepted: 25 August 2026.
Published: 27 September 2026.

Abstract:

While the number of people who interact with robots is growing exponentially, theories and knowledge of human–robot relationships, especially friendship and trust, remain ambiguous, sometimes contradictory, even though there are many published papers in this direction. We believe that putting together different opinions on the same topic can help the reader to get a more objective picture of the issue. This work, based on the opinions of scientists expressed over time, aims to answer, at least partially, old and current questions regarding the possibility and the level of a friendly and trustworthy relationship between humans and robots.

Keywords – humans, robots, friendship, trust, artificial intelligence.

                   

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