Perceived Mistreatment and Emotional Capability Following Aggressive Treatment of Robots and Computers

Abstract

Robots (and computers) are increasingly being used in scenarios where they interact socially with people. How people react to these agents is telling about the perceived empathy of such agents. Mistreatment of robots (or computers) by co-workers might provoke such telling reactions. This study examines perceived mistreatment directed towards a robot in comparison to a computer. This will provide some understanding of how people feel about robots in collaborative social settings. We conducted a two by two between-subjects study with 80 participants. Participants worked cooperatively with either a robot or a computer agent. An experiment confederate would either act aggressively or neutrally towards the agent. We hypothesized that people would not perceive aggressive speech as mistreatment when an agent was capable of emotional feelings and similar to themselves; that participants would perceive the robot as more similar in appearance and emotionally capable to themselves than a computer; and so would observe more mistreatment with a robot. The final results supported our hypotheses; the participants observed greater mistreatment for the robot, but not the computer. Also participants felt significantly more sympathetic towards the robot and believed that it was much more emotionally capable.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Zachary Carlson is a computer scientist and engineer B.Sc. from the University of Nevada, Reno. His research concerns social robotics and human perceptions of robots in collaborative environments. Postbaccalaureate, he helped design a path planning system for domestic UAVs and now currently works as a Technology Solutions Engineer on the Enterprise Architecture Team for SAIF, a not-for-profit workers' compensation insurance company. Louise Lemmon is a behavioral psychologist turned graphic designer. She holds B.A.s in psychology and art from the University of Nevada, Reno and a B.F.A. in graphic design from Oregon State University. Now she works as a Junior Graphic Designer at 2 Towns Ciderhouse.MacCallister Higgins is a computer scientist and engineer B.Sc. from the University of Nevada, Reno. He's created a company that has deployed self-driving cars across the country, developed next-generation

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