Elizabeth Phillips

Assistant Professor

Human Factors/Applied Cognition: Human-robot interaction, human-like robots, autonomous and adaptive systems, human-human teams, applications for augmented and virtual reality, women in robotics

Elizabeth "Beth" Phillips is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in the Human Factors and Applied Cognition Group at George Mason University. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology from the University of Central Florida and completed her Post-Doctoral work in the Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative at Brown University.

Dr. Phillips is the director of the Applied Psychology and Autonomous Systems (ALPHAS) Lab and the co-director of the GMU Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Lab. Her expertise is in human interactions with robots, autonomous systems, and related technologies like augmented and virtual reality. She studies how we can design these systems to be better partners and teammates for people in the near future. She has an interest in how robots and other technologies are changing the way we interact with the world and one another, including the future of human relationships. Her research background is diverse and interdisciplinary and includes collaborations with researchers in the departments of engineering and industrial design, computer science, cognitive science, and commercial product companies outside of the university.

She is also the co-creator of the Anthropomorphic RoBOT (ABOT) database, a collection of images of and data about real-world human-like robots. ABOT was created as a resource to enable systematic, generalizable, and reproducible research on the psychological effects of robots’ human-like appearance.

If you are a student interested in volunteering to work on research projects please check out our lab: https://hri.lab.gmu.edu/

Selected Publications

**Kim, B., Zhu, Q., Phillips, E., & Williams, T. (2025, July). From Intent to Accountability: Exploring the Role of Mental States in Robot Accountability. In 2025 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO) (pp. 67-72). IEEE.

**Best paper award

Steckman, L., Iyer, N., Kim, B., Lyons, J., Cappuccio, M., Gaffley, M. R., Phillips, E., Sousa, S., & Van Kleek, M. (2025). Challenges and Opportunities in the Responsible Use of AI and Human-Computer Interaction. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6).

Rosero, A., Dula, E., Kelly. H., Malle, B. F., & Phillips E. (2024). Human perceptions of social robot deception behaviors: An exploratory analysis. Frontiers in Robotics and A.I., 11:1409712. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1409712

Kim, B., Wen, R., de Visser, E. J., Tossell, C. C., Zhu, Q., Williams, T., & Phillips, E. (2024). Can robot advisers encourage honesty?: Considering the impact of rule, identity, and role-based moral advice. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 184, 103217.

de Visser, E. J., Phillips, E., Tenhundfeld, N., Donadio, B., Ries, A., Madison, A., Kim, B., and Tossell, C. (2023). Trust in automated parking systems: A mixed methods approach. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour.

Kim, B., de Visser, E., & Phillips, E. (2022). Two uncanny valleys: Re-evaluating the uncanny valley across the full spectrum of real-world human-like robots. Computers in Human Behavior, 107340.

Rothstein, N., de Visser E. J., and Phillips, E. (2021). Perceptions of infidelity with sex robots. Proceedings of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction ‘HRI

Kim, B., Wen, R., Zhu, Q., Williams, T., and Phillips, E., (2021). Robots as moral advisers: The effects of deontological, virtue, and Confucian ethics on encouraging honest behavior. Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Alt.HRI

Hetrick, R., Amerson, N., Kim, B., Rosen, E., de Visser, E. J., & Phillips, E. (2020). Testing workload and usability of virtual reality interfaces for the control of robots. IEEE Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium.

Yitzhak, S., Rosen, E., Chien, G., Phillips, E., Tellex, S., & Konidaris, G. (2019) End-user programming using mixed reality. International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada.

Phillips, E., Zhoa, X., Ullman, D., & Malle, B.F. (2018). What is human-like?: Decomposing human-like appearance using the Anthropomorphic RoBOT (ABOT) Database. Proceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction ‘HRI (pp.105-113). ACM

Grants and Fellowships

The ALPHAs lab is grateful to be funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and the GMU Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact.

Courses Taught

Brain and Sensory Processes, Psych 375

Ergonomics, Psych 768

Cognitive Psychology, Psych 317

Human-Systems Interaction, Psych 768

Education

B.S. Psychology, University of Central Florida

M.A. Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology, University of Central Florida

Ph.D. Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology, University of Central Florida

Post-Doc Humanity Centered Robotics, Brown University

Dissertations Supervised

Andres Rosero, Exploring Human-Agent Interactions in Complex Environments (2025)