Benjamin Lebrun

PhD in Psychology, Neuropsychologist

 Resume
Benjamin Lebrun portrait
Profile

Benjamin Lebrun

PhD in Psychology · Neuropsychologist University of Canterbury · New Zealand
About

I explore mind perception in robots.

I am a French neuropsychologist with a PhD in psychology. I study how people perceive, judge and interact with social robots and other artificial agents. My work draws on cognitive and social psychology and on my clinical background in neuropsychology, and I aim to bring these fields closer together in my research.

Research
  • Human–Robot Interaction
  • Neuropsychology
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
Try it · illustrative scenario

Offer
Phantom costs

Would you take a free gift from a robot?

No reason Explained $1 $20
Perceived phantom costs · illustrative

A phantom cost is a hidden catch people suspect when an offer seems too good to be true. Choose an offer, then decide.

TBD

Latest publication

Too good to be true: People reject free gifts from robots because they infer bad intentions

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2026 10 publications · 2023–2026
Education

PhD in Psychology

University of Canterbury Conferred 25 June 2026
Last Service

Pioneer General Chair

HRI 2027, Silicon Valley Reviewer for HRI, HAI, IJSR, THRI

Education

Select a row for details
Supervisors
Andrew Vonasch · Christoph Bartneck
Project
The Perception of Phantom Costs in HRI
Defence
20 May 2026
Conferred
25 June 2026
GPA
4.0/4.0 (or 9.0/9.0)
Project
Perceiving Social Beings in Artificial Agents
Supervisors
Tatjana Nazir · Adriana Sampaio
GPA
3.85/4.0 (or 8.43/9.0)
Project
Perceiving Social Beings in Artificial Agents
Supervisor
Tatjana Nazir
Honours
Highest honours
Supervisor
Loris Schiaratura
Project
Emotional Facial Micro-Expressions in Alzheimer’s Disease

Experience

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Academic

Courses
Cognition (200-level, 2023–2025)
Introductory Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience (200-level, 2024)
Neuroscience and Neurological Disorders (300-level, 2025)
Project
SOBARAG (social dominance and social hierarchy toward robots)
Focus
Study design and experimental planning
Project
SOBARAG
Responsibilities
Study design and research support
Project
Physiological variations during observation of different types of gestures
Responsibilities
Experimental setup · Physiological data collection (BIOPAC) · Eye tracking (EYELINK)

Clinical

Clinical focus
Cognitive and neuropsychological assessments with adult populations; geriatrics and neurology; assessments in the context of research programmes
Clinical focus
Neuropsychological assessments (geriatric population)
Clinical focus
Neuropsychological assessments with young patients with brain tumors
Clinical focus
Neuropsychological assessments (geriatric population)

Publications

Authors
Lebrun, B., Vonasch, A., & Bartneck, C. (2026).
Published in
International Journal of Social Robotics, 18(5), 58.
DOI
Authors
Parreira, M. T., et al. (2026).
Published in
Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human–Robot Interaction (HRI Companion ’26), 1423–1425.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B. (2026).
Published in
Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human–Robot Interaction (HRI Companion ’26), 1302–1304.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., Bartneck, C., & Vonasch, A. J. (2026).
Published in
Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human–Robot Interaction (HRI ’26), 963–971.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., Bartneck, C., & Vonasch, A. (2026).
Published in
Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human–Robot Interaction (HRI ’26), 1278–1282.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., & Vonasch, A. (2026).
Published in
Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering. Elsevier.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., et al. (2025).
Published in
Preprint. arXiv.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., Bartneck, C., & Vonasch, A. (2025).
Published in
Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’25), Melbourne, Australia, 1037–1041.
DOI
Authors
Lebrun, B., Temtsin, S., Vonasch, A., & Bartneck, C. (2024).
Published in
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 10.
DOI
Authors
Nazir, T. A., Lebrun, B., & Li, B. (2023).
Published in
PLOS ONE, 18(11), e0287507.
DOI

Presentations & Conferences

June 2026Internet Technology and Data Science Lab AIRO, University of GhentGhent, BelgiumTalk on the perception of phantom costs in HRI.
May 2026Symposium for Young Researchers in Cognitive ScienceLille, FranceTalk on the role of agent’s anthropomorphism in shaping phantom costs.
March 2026HRI 2026 ConferenceEdinburgh, UK1-minute video, poster, and talk on the perception of phantom costs in HRI; talk on the role of agent’s anthropomorphism; poster on plausible explanations reducing phantom cost perception.
Sep 2025Postgraduate Conference 2025 – CSSE DepartmentChristchurch, NZTalk on phantom costs perception in HRI.
March 2025HRI 2025 ConferenceMelbourne, AustraliaShort talk and poster on phantom costs in HRI: A replication study.
Sep 2024New Zealand Psychological Society ConferenceChristchurch, NZPoster on skepticism about robots’ implausible statements.
Aug 2024Exhibit Your Thesis – University of CanterburyChristchurch, NZPoster on epistemic vigilance in HRI.
Aug 2022ESCoP 2022Lille, FrancePoster on improving the acceptability of social robots.
Aug 2022ESLP 2022Lille, FrancePoster on improving the acceptability of social robots.

Service to the Community

Select a row for details
Roles
Pioneer General Chair (HRI 2027, Silicon Valley)
Student Volunteer (HRI 2026, Edinburgh)
Student Volunteer Chair (HRI 2025, Melbourne)
Student Volunteer Chair (HRI 2024, Denver)
Additional
Support Staff (ESLP 2022, Lille)
Pioneer Workshop
HRI 2026 Pioneer
Workshop
“Responsible Outcomes and Operational Tools for Sustainability in HRI”
HRI
7 reviews + 5x 1AC
HAI
5 reviews + 1x 1AC
Journals
International Journal of Social Robotics (4 reviews) · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (1 review)
Other venues
OzCHI (3 reviews) · ACII (1 review)
Role
Alumni President, University of Lille
Invited / Public talk
Presented at the Cognitive Science Forum (France), March 2022

Funding & Awards

2023–2026

University Doctoral Scholarship

HRI 2026

Student Volunteer Award, Day Captain

2025

Best Presentation Award, 2nd Place

CSSE Postgraduate Conference 2025.

HRI 2025

Honorable Mention

Pioneer Paper for “Skepticism about Robots’ Implausible Statements”.

2024

Research Student Publication Prize

University of Canterbury.

2022

Research Mobility Grant

Supported by the French government through the Program “Investissements d’avenir” (I-SITE ULNE / ANR-16-IDEX-0004 ULNE) managed by the National Research Agency.

Skills & Interests

Languages
  • Frenchnative
  • Englishfluent
  • Portuguesegood
  • Germanpreviously fluent
Technical & Coding Skills
  • HTML
  • E‑Prime
  • PsychoPy
  • R
  • Certificate in introduction to programming with MATLAB
Research Methods
  • Behavioural experiment design
  • Cognitive and neuropsychological assessment
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Psychometrics
Applied Expertise
  • HRI
  • Neuropsychology
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Social cognition
  • Behavioural studies
  • Experimental design for social and cognitive neuroscience
  • Quantitative and qualitative analyses
Hobbies

Meteorites

A map of the meteorites found in France Explore the map

Fossils

Minerals

Astronomy

Former member of the Société Astronomique de France

Running

Coffee latte art

Contact

Email benjamin.lebrun@pg.canterbury.ac.nz
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Affiliation

University of Canterbury

Christchurch, New Zealand.