Discrimination and Stereotypical Responses to Robots as a Function of Robot Colorization

Abstract

Past research has shown that color can evoke an emotional response from people in various situations. Exploring this finding for robots, this paper presents a study with 175 participants who evaluated how eight robots designed with different colors would be viewed by society along a number of dimensions. The results indicated that subjects thought society would discriminate against a black or rainbow colorized robot more so than a robot portrayed as white. Further, the black colorized robot was thought to be stronger than a white or yellow colorized robot and subjects indicated that a red and black robot would be selected more often to commit an assault than the other robots. Additionally, the data revealed that a rainbow-colored robot was more likely to be selected as an elementary school teacher and personal friend but would receive more disrespect within society.