Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Sam Thellman is a cognitive scientist and human-robot interaction researcher whose work sits at the fascinating intersection of folk psychology, social cognition, and robotics. Best known for probing how people mentally engage with robots, Thellman has made foundational contributions to understanding mental state attribution — the tendency humans have to ascribe beliefs, intentions, and perceptions to artificial agents. His most influential work, "Folk-Psychological Interpretation of Human vs. Humanoid Robot Behavior" (2017, 143 citations), established that people apply the same intuitive psychological frameworks to robots as they do to other humans, with significant implications for robot design. His 2022 systematic review of mental state attribution to robots (132 citations) brought critical methodological clarity to a fragmented, multidisciplinary field. Together, these papers have shaped how researchers conceptualize and study human-robot social cognition. Thellman has also made notable contributions around perceptual belief attribution — investigating whether people can accurately track what robots "know" about their environment — revealing important gaps that challenge robot explainability. His work on attitudes, embodiment, and gender in human-robot interaction further demonstrates a researcher committed to rigorous, nuanced inquiry. With nearly 500 total citations, Thellman's scholarship is essential reading for anyone designing or studying socially intelligent robots.