Technological and Interpersonal Trust in Child-Robot Interaction

Abstract

This study aimed to explore technological and interpersonal trust in interactions between children and social robots. Specifically, we focused on whether children distinguish between these two types of trust and whether the two constitute independent constructs or interact. Using an exploratory approach, we analyzed the explanations 87 children, aged 7 to 11 years, offered for the degree to which they indicated to trust a robot with which they had just interacted. Our results suggest that children distinguished between technological and interpersonal trust in a robot. Three main categories of answers could be identified: answers relating to technological trust, those indicating the presence of interpersonal trust, and a third category in which children referred to technological properties of robots as a reason for the existence of interpersonal trust. We discuss these findings in light of the development of child-robot relationships and the design of future child-robot interaction studies. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing~Empirical studies in HCI • Human-centered computing~User studies • Human-centered computing~HCI theory, concepts and models • Human-centered computing~Field studies

Intentional acceptance of social robots: Development and validation of a self-report measure for children

“…The data used in the present study come from a larger study in which we aim to develop and validate a set of standardized measures for CRI research. Data from this larger study are also used in four other publications De Jong et al, 2020;Van Straten et al, 2020;Van Straten et al, 2018). The full study was approved by the Ethics Review Board of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (2018-YME-8706).…”

What Do Children Want from a Social Robot? Toward Gratifications Measures for Child-Robot Interaction

“…These data were part of a larger data collection with the main aim to develop and validate a set of standardized self-report measures for CRI [19]. The data have already been used for other studies on (measures in) CRI [20]- [22].…”

Closeness, trust, and perceived social support in child-robot relationship formation

“…The interviewer orally presented the children with 75 closed-ended and eleven open-ended items (for a discussion of children's answers to an open-ended item on trust, see Van Straten et al, 2018). The items (of which not all are used in this study) addressed children's perception of the robot, their internal states during an interaction with the robot, their appreciation of the interaction with the robot, and children's cognitive development as well as personality.…”

“…Specifically, there may be constructs that are inherently linked to child-robot relationship formation that could be considered. For instance, the more qualitative data resulting from this study (i.e., children's answers to the open question why they [dis]trusted the robot) revealed that children refer to both interpersonal and technological aspects of the robot and its behavior when they explain their level of trust in the robot (see Van Straten et al, 2018). Whereas our measure of trust focused on interpersonal trust, it may thus also be sensible to assess children's technological trust in a robot and see how it correlates with interpersonal trust, closeness, and perceived social support.…”