For a genuine conversation, consider talking to a robot; the less humanized, the better. Consumer researcher Anne Scherer shares her findings on why some machines get us to open up better than actual people, revealing fascinating insights about human nature that could lead to more honest interactions in our day-to-day lives.

We increasingly interact with machines instead of humans on a day-to-day basis. While social norms and fears of social judgments govern our social interactions, machines can remove the social from the equation. The result: Machines give our constant need for self-presentation and our fear of being judged poorly a time-out. With this, machines ca...