An Investigation of Social Influence of Group Norms on Human in Human–Robot Groups

Abstract

Numerous previously conducted studies presently examine social robots’ ways of responding, gesturing, and displaying emotion in human–robot interactions. Moreover, sociality implies that robots not only exhibit human–like behaviors but also display a tendency to adapt to a group of individuals. For robots to exhibit sociality, they must adapt to group norms without telling them how to behave by the group members. This study investigates whether group norms can affect human member’s decision–making in human–robot groups. Thus, we conduct quizzes with unclear and vague answers, and we instruct a participant to take the quizzes with two robots. We assess the influence by making the participant and two robots repeat a set of two actions: answering the same quiz and recognizing each answer of the group members. We investigate chronological change of their answers while answering the quiz showing the same question. The experimental results of the quiz demonstrate that the human participants changed their answers after recognizing the robots’ answers for the first time. They also gradually decrease the fluctuation of their answers while answering the quiz with the robots, whereas the human participant did not fluctuate their answers while answering the quiz alone. It assumed that the human participants are confused about the diversity of the answers in the group and have to be aware of the robots’ consideration of the group norm, so that they can adjust their answers to the group norm. Therefore, we conclude that the robots trying to comply with a group norm affect human’s decision–making.