Influence of gender and age on the attitudes of children towards humanoid robots

Abstract

This study addresses the attitudes of children toward robots displaying various degrees of anthropomorphic appearance. Understanding the means by which children perceive and evaluate robots across the spectrum of anthropomorphism is a crucial issue within the field of robotics research. This study conducted two experiments to understand children's attitudes toward robots with various degrees of realism and examine whether gender or age influences the social and physical attraction children feel toward humanoid robots. The results of the study suggest that when designing robots for children, designers need not focus on creating an authentic human-like appearance. In addition, the influence of children's age on their attitudes toward robots is less significant than that of gender. Generally, children aged from 8 to 14 years have similar attitudes to and perceptions of humanoid robots. An interesting finding is the persistent differences between boys and girls, with respect to the ratings of their social and physical attraction to robots. Particularly, girls are more accepting of human-like robots, especially female robots, than boys are. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.