Date of Award

6-2023

Document Type

Open Access

Department

Computer Science

Second Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Kristina Striegnitz

Second Advisor

George Bizer

Language

English

Keywords

human-robot interaction, HRI, social robotics, gender, personality

Abstract

Previous research in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has shown that social female robots typically evoke more cognitive and affective trust. Studies also show that extroverted robot personalities are associated with desirable social outcomes. In this experiment, I tested the extent to which a robot's gender (male vs. female) and personality (introverted vs. extroverted) impact the success of a given human-robot interaction. Specifically, I evaluated if the gender of a robot has an effect on the human preference for extroverted personalities. Prior to interacting with a robot, participants completed a baseline Negative Attitudes Towards Robots Scale [9]. Then, during the interaction, the robot asked the participant a variety of questions in an interview-like manner. After this dialogue concluded, the robot requested the participant to execute a task, which was used as a behavioral measure. Once the participants were done with the task, they completed two self-report measures: a Robot Comfort Scale [9] and a Robot Reaction Scale [7]. Results showed that participants felt more comfortable interacting with the extroverted female robot compared to the introverted female robot. However, the opposite was true for the male robot: participants felt more comfortable interacting with the introverted male robot compared to the extroverted male robot. Furthermore, participants tended to have better general reactions to the extroverted female robot compared to the introverted male robot. This study demonstrates that the notion of extroverted robots yielding desirable social outcomes is not generalizable on dimensions of gender.

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.