Abstract
Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems are quickly becoming a familiar part of different aspects of everyday life. We know very little about how children and adults perceive the abilities of different robots and whether these ascriptions are associated with a willingness to interact with a robot. In the current study, we asked British children aged 4–13 years and British adults to complete an online experiment. Participants were asked to describe what a robot looks like, give their preference for various types of robots (a social robot, a machine-like robot, and a human-like robot), and answer whether they were willing to engage in different activities with the different robots. Results showed that younger children (4 to 8 years old) are more willing to engage with robots compared to older children (9 to 13 years) and adults. Specifically, younger children were more likely to see robots as kind compared to older children and adults. Younger children were also more likely to rate the social robot as helpful compared to older children and adults. This is also the first study to examine preferences for robots engaging in religious activities, and results show that British adults prefer humans over robots to pray for them but such biases may not be generally applicable to children. These results provide new insight into how children and adults in the United Kingdom accept the presence and function of robots.
Highlights
Studies have been conducted with children in the USA (e.g., [6]), Asia (e.g., [7]), and across Europe (e.g., [8]), very few studies have focused on children in the UK, a nation that is seeing an increase in robotic presence
As robots become more and more familiar in British lives, it is important to understand how they may be perceived and accepted. This study explores both British children’s and adults’ perception of and motivation to interact with three different types of robots and introduces a novel exploration of their acceptance of religious robots
There was no developmental shift in the proportion of participants describing a metallic aspect, there was a developmental shift in the use of “human likeness”
Summary
Robotics and AI help to solve several workforce problems such as making industry more efficient, completing hazardous jobs (such as those working in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station), tackling social problems of loneliness (via interacting robots such as Pepper), encouraging language skills [2] or exercise in children [3], helping the elderly as domestic helpers (such as fetching containers), and praying or completing a ritual as religious robots, such as Mindar in Kodaiji or SanTO, a robot designed to have divine features similar to Christian saints [4] Perhaps due to their widespread usefulness, robotic presence has increased [5]. Our research aims are at (1) comparing British children’s and adults’ perception of robots, (2) examining differences in impressions toward three
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