Sidra Sidra

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Sidra Sidra is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, social robotics, and persuasive technology. Her work fundamentally explores how robots can influence human decision-making, particularly in service and consumer contexts. Her most-cited study, "Bon Appetit! Robot Persuasion for Food Recommendation" (2018, 31 citations), is a landmark experiment demonstrating that a robot’s physical embodiment significantly enhances its persuasive power over disembodied systems like information kiosks when recommending restaurants. This finding has profound implications for the design of service robots in hospitality, retail, and healthcare. By systematically comparing human, robot, and kiosk persuasiveness, Sidra has helped establish empirical foundations for understanding how social presence and physical form shape trust and compliance. Her work bridges robotics, psychology, and marketing, offering practical insights for developers creating robots that must ethically influence user choices. With growing interest in embodied AI, Sidra’s contributions are increasingly cited as foundational to the emerging field of robot persuasion, positioning her as a key voice in the responsible deployment of social robots in everyday life.