The Effects of Exposure to Different Social Robots on Attitudes toward Preferences

Abstract

We present results of a quasi-experimental study investigating how user preference might change after direct interaction with two different types of robot regarding morphology and affordances: a machine-like that interacts through touch, and a human-like that interacts verbally. The study was performed in an art exhibition setting, where visitors had the opportunity to interact with the robots voluntarily, and were asked to fill out questionnaires before and after the experience. Post interactions, visitors preferred to touch the machine-like “hard” robot despite initial stated preference for soft materials, preferred mutual contact despite initial preference of subject to initiate touch, and preferred communication with a robot that could touch rather than initial preference for a robot that could “see”. Overall, users showed a significant constant preference for the machine-like robot, reportedly feeling a stronger connection with it than with the human-like one as it met their expectations, and they found its movements more appealing. Social conditioning can render people reluctant to touch a robot with very human-like appearance, and set the expectations for interaction too high to meet. Our results, lastly, indicate that interaction with more than one type of social robot can affect the interaction experience for each of the robots.

Understanding anthropomorphism in service provision: a meta-analysis of physical robots, chatbots, and other AI

“…The literature is unclear about the importance of different mediators. One research stream considers relational mediators discussed in marketing (e.g., trust, satisfaction; Vlachos et al 2016). A second stream, strongly influenced by information systems (IS) literature, uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) and considers mediators including perceived usefulness and ease of use (Canning et al 2014).…”

A narrative approach to human-robot interaction prototyping for companion robots

“…a cardboard mock-up or a written vignette). Vlachos et al [23] found that participants often changed their minds about their preferences regarding a particular robot after a brief physical interaction, compared to their stated pre-interaction preferences.…”

Meeting with social robots like the cat-cucumber meeting? An integrated model of human-robot first contact. Psychological perspective.

“…Children who met the interactive robot humanoid Robovie built high expectations towards him and quickly lost interest in him when they experienced disappointment [89]. The predominance of machine-like robots observed in some studies, higher trust and satisfaction from cooperation with them [90,91] may result from the fact that the user does not compare constantly to humans, not excessive expectations and may in his assessment focus on its functionality.…”