PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Elizabeth Broadbent

Elizabeth Broadbent is a health psychologist whose research links human behavior with social robots and AI in care. She trained in electrical engineering, completed psychology degrees at Massey and Auckland, and joined the University of Auckland’s Department of Psychological Medicine as a lecturer in 2005 before becoming professor in 2019. She published a 2017 review of human–robot interaction and was lead author of a 2018 trial of home robots for people with COPD. As of October 2026, she is a professor at Auckland and a NOMIS Senior Fellow at Collegium Helveticum, with a project called “Creating Socially Effective Connections with AI Agents.”

Links
Google Scholar and LinkedIn

Timeline

  1. 1995–2005

    Engineering and psychology degrees

    She earns a BE with honours in electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Canterbury in 1995, a Graduate Diploma in Arts in Psychology at Massey University in 2000, an MSc with first-class honours in Health Psychology at the University of Auckland in 2002, and a Health Psychology PhD at the University of Auckland in 2005.

  2. 1995–2005

    Early engineering roles

    She works as a support engineer at TransPower in 1995, a design engineer at Robotechnology from 1997 to 1998, and a researcher studying fatigue in international flight operations at Air New Zealand from 2000 to 2005.

  3. 2005–2019

    Professor in Auckland

    She joins the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland as a lecturer in 2005. In 2010, she becomes senior lecturer; she becomes associate professor in 2016 and professor in 2019. In 2010, she holds visiting academic positions at Harvard’s School of Psychology and MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society.

  4. 2017

    Review and Fulbright Award

    In 2017, she publishes “Interactions With Robots: The Truths We Reveal About Ourselves” in Annual Review of Psychology. The review examines how people respond to robots and attribute mind to them. She also receives a Fulbright Senior Award to study companion robots in Boston.

  5. 2018

    Home robots for COPD

    In 2018, she is lead author of a pilot randomized controlled trial of iRobi robots delivering telehealth support to people with COPD. The robot group shows higher adherence to long-acting inhalers and more rehabilitation exercise than the control group.

  6. 2022

    Behavioral medicine fellowships

    In 2022, she is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

  7. 2023

    AI robots and loneliness

    In 2023, she discusses how AI integration with companion robots might help with loneliness.

  8. As of October 2026

    NOMIS Senior Fellow

    As of October 2026, she is a professor of health psychology in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland and a NOMIS Senior Fellow at Collegium Helveticum. Her fellowship project is titled “Creating Socially Effective Connections with AI Agents” and aims to develop a model of social connectedness with AI agents and design research to test it.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Elizabeth Broadbent yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Elizabeth Broadbent | Collegium Helveticum collegium.ethz.ch. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. How we interact with robots reveals parts of who we are - LSE Business Review blogs.lse.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Robots helped patients with drug and exercise routines auckland.ac.nz. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Using Robots at Home to Support Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Can an AI robot help with loneliness? auckland.ac.nz. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Creating Socially Effective Connections with AI Agents | Collegium Helveticum collegium.ethz.ch. Checked 19 October 2026.