Marlena R. Fraune

Rabble of Robots Effects: Number and Type of Robots Modulates Attitudes, Emotions, and Stereotypes

Robots are expected to become present in society in increasing numbers, yet few studies in human-robot interaction (HRI) go beyond one-to-one interaction to examine how emotions, attitudes, and stereotypes expressed toward groups of robots differ from those expressed toward individuals. Research from social psychology indicates that people interact differently with individuals than with groups. We therefore hypothesize that group effects might similarly occur when people face multiple robots. Further, group effects might vary for robots of different types. In this exploratory study, we used videos to expose participants in a between-subjects experiment to robots varying in Number (Single or Group) and Type (anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or mechanomorphic). We then measured participants’ general attitudes, emotions, and stereotypes toward robots with a combination of measures from HRI (e.g., Godspeed Questionnaire, NARS) and social psychology (e.g., Big Five, Social Threat, Emotions). Results suggest that Number and Type of observed robots had an interaction effect on responses toward robots in general, leading to more positive responses for groups for some robot types, but more negative responses for others. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.1.2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems - human factors. J.4 [Social and Behavioral Sciences]: Psychology. I.2.9 [Artificial Intelligence] Robotics. General Terms Experimentation, Human Factors. General Terms Experimentation, Human Factors.

Getting in Touch: How imagined, actual, and physical contact affect evaluations of robots

Although it is widely accepted that robots will be used in everyday contexts in near future, many people feel anxious and hold negative attitudes toward robots. This negative reaction might be stronger when users come into direct physical contact with them, particularly when touch is required between robots and humans, (e.g., when using robots as assistants to help elderly people at home). Intergroup contact research in social psychology has proposed various forms of contact as a means to reduce negative feelings toward outgroup members. The present study examined how Contact Type (Actual vs. Imagined) and Contact Modality (Look vs. Touch) with a NAO robot would impact attitudes toward NAO compared to a no-contact control condition. Results showed that nearly any type of contact effectively reduced negative emotions compared to the control condition. However, for participants with preexisting negative emotions toward robots, contact sometimes produced more negative attitudes. We discuss these findings and the resulting implications for future research.

Robots in Groups and Teams

Over the last decade, the idea that robots could become an integral part of groups and teams has developed from a promising vision into a reality. Robots are increasingly designed to interact with groups and teams of people, yet most human-robot interaction research still focuses on a single humans interacting with a single robot. The goal for the workshop is therefore to advance research in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human robot interaction (HRI) by raising awareness for the social and technical challenges that surround the placement of robots within work-groups and teams. The workshop will be organized around three central questions: (1) How do robots shape the dynamics of groups and teams in existing settings? (2) How does a robots behavior shape how humans interact with each other in dyads and in larger groups and teams? (3) How can robots improve the performance of work groups and teams by acting on social processes? These core issues will be covered across a set of presentations that initiate in- depth discussions around each question to improve the quality of and support the growth of research in the CSCW community that focuses on the intersection of robots, groups, and teams.

Three's company, or a crowd?: The effects of robot number and behavior on HRI in Japan and the USA.

In everyday applications of robotics, people will likely interact with groups of robots. Most human-robot interaction (HRI) research to date, however, has studied humans interacting with individual robots. Initial research suggests that humans respond differently to individual robots and robots in groups, making responses to groups of robots critical to study. This paper presents a study performed in a public setting familiar to participants (university cafeterias) to examine how participants respond when robots, individually and in groups, enter their space. We examined participant survey and behavioral responses to different numbers of robots (Single or Group) with different behaviors (Social or Functional). Because robots will be used across cultures, we performed the study in Japan and the USA. Across cultures, we found that people interact more with robots in groups than single robots, yet report similar levels of liking for both; participants also rated social robots as more friendly and helpful than functional robots in general. They rated single social robots more positively than a group of social robots, but a group of functional robots more positively than single functional robots. Japanese participants reported liking the robots more than USA participants. This suggests that researchers and designers should be aware of how robot characteristics influence group effects. Social human-robot interaction, group effects, robot behavior, cross-cultural study

Threatening Flocks and Mindful Snowflakes: How Group Entitativity Affects Perceptions of Robots

Robots are expected to become present in society in increasing numbers, yet few studies in human-robot interaction (HRI) go beyond one-to-one interaction to examine how characteristics of robot groups will affect HRI. In particular, people may show more negative or aggressive behavior toward entitative (i.e., cohesive) robot groups, like they do toward entitative human groups, compared to diverse groups. Furthermore, because people in collectivist (e.g., Japan) and individualistic (e.g., US) cultures respond to groups and to cues of entitativity differently, entitative robot groups may affect people differently across such cultures. This study examines how robot Entitativity Condition (Single Robots, Diverse Group, Entitative Group) and Country (USA, Japan) affect emotions toward, mind attributions to, and willingness to interact with robots. Results indicate that Entitative robot groups, compared to Single robots, were viewed more negatively. Entitative robots were also more threatening than Diverse robots. Diverse robot groups, compared to Single robots, were viewed as having more mind, and participants were more willing to interact with them. These findings were similar in the USA and Japan. This indicates that robot group entitativity and diversity is critical to keep in mind when designing robots.

Context congruency and robotic facial expressions: Do effects on human perceptions vary across culture?

We performed an experimental study (n=48) of the effects of context congruency on human perceptions of robotic facial expressions across cultures (Western and East Asian individuals). We found that context congruency had a significant effect on human perceptions, and that this effect varied by the emotional valence of the context and facial expression. Moreover, these effects occurred regardless of the cultural background of the participants. In short, there were predictable patterns in the effects of congruent/incongruent environmental context on perceptions of robot affect across Western and East Asian individuals. We argue that these findings fit with a dynamical systems view of social cognition as an emergent phenomenon. Taking advantage of such context effects may ease the constraints for developing culturally-specific affective cues in human-robot interaction, opening the possibility to create culture-neutral models of robots and affective interaction.

Robot gossip: effects of mode of robot communication on human perceptions of robots

With robots becoming more prevalent, it is important to understand human attitudes toward robots not only when humans directly interact with the robots as most research examines, but when robots are performing nonsocial tasks (e.g., cleaning) within sight and hearing of humans. This study examined how presumed robot communication style in such situations of human-robot colocation affects human perceptions of a group of robots. Results suggest that communication style of robots did not affect perceptions of robots, but further studies should use different techniques to manipulate supposed communication style.

Getting to Know You: Relationship Between Intergroup Contact and Willingness to Interact

While researchers expect it will be technologically possible for robots to be widely available in society in the near future, the public shows negative attitudes toward robots that may impede their acceptance. Intergroup contact theory shows that positive contact with an outgroup reduces prejudice and increases positive emotions towards that outgroup. This was applied to an interaction between a participant and a humanoid robot to determine if those who interacted directly with, including touching, the robot would perceive all robots in a more positive manner and be more willing to interact with them. Results indicated that contact with the robot, compared with the Control condition, produced a marginally higher willingness to interact with robots.