Papers
9
Total Citations
59
H-Index
4
About
Ali Momen investigates the intersection of social cognition, human-robot interaction, and moral psychology, exploring how we perceive and trust artificial agents. His work reveals that our social brain processes robot faces differently than human faces—robots engage face-processing regions less strongly, and we show attenuated perceptual discrimination when distinguishing between them. Momen’s research on gaze cueing demonstrates that pre-exposure to ambiguous faces can modulate top-down attentional control, with implications for understanding social signaling in both human and robotic contexts. His highly cited studies on moral decision-making show that people’s trust in AI moral advisors depends on perceived moral competence and humanlikeness, with GPT-3-enabled robots influencing ethical judgments in controlled settings. With over 60 citations across his publications, Momen has extended this work to field studies examining AI advisors in ethical military decision-making. His findings challenge assumptions about anthropomorphism, showing that beliefs about a robot’s mind—not just its appearance—shape social perception. Momen’s research bridges cognitive neuroscience and AI ethics, offering critical insights for designing socially adept robots and understanding human trust in autonomous systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 3Social perception of robots is shaped by beliefs about their minds9 citations · 2024
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- 5Robots engage face-processing less strongly than humans4 citations · 2022
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