Interactions with technologies will be perceived as more fluent and natural, and hence will be more efficient and effective, when they are designed to resemble interactions with other humans.

Peter Ruijten is assistant professor on Human-Like Machines within the Human-Technology Interaction research group at the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences. Research at the group focuses on social- and cognitive psychology, people’s responses to new innovative technologies, and persuasion. The common approach of the research projects is to analyze how humans interact with technology in ways that work best for them and for society at large. The current research interests of Peter Ruijten include (social) Human-Robot Interaction, Persuasive Technologies, and Trust in Autonomous Vehicles. All of his projects have the common goal of designing and developing technologies in such a way that our interactions with them are perceived as natural and fluent, making those technologies easier in use and more helpful in our daily lives. 

Peter Ruijten holds a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Avans University of Applied Sciences (2005) and a MSc in Human-Technology Interaction from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, 2011). In 2015, he obtained his PhD in Social Psychology from the Human-Technology Interaction group at the TU/e department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, on the topic of Responses to Human-Like Artificial Agents. He then was appointed as lecturer within the same group, and became an assistant professor on Human-Like Machines in 2017.