Robot Sociality in Human-Robot Team Interactions

Abstract

Robots are entering everyday life (e.g., TUG medical robots, Roomba vacuum cleaners) to help improve quality of life. Research shows that humans collaborate more effectively with social robots than with nonsocial robots, but does this mean that humans trust social robots more than nonsocial robots? In this study, we examined how robots’ social appearance and behavior (mechanomorphic vs. anthropomorphic) affected how trustworthy participants felt the robots were. Participants played a game in teams of two humans and two robots against similarly-composed opposing teams. After the game, participants rated how much they trusted their robotic teammates. Overall, people trusted anthropomorphic robots slightly more. In general, people had intermediate levels of trust for robots and felt low levels of uneasy around them. Therefore, future designs of robots should be more anthropomorphic and social to increase trust ratings.