Effects of robotic companionship on music enjoyment and agent perception

Abstract

We evaluate the effects of robotic listening companionship on people's enjoyment of music, and on their perception of the robot. We present a robotic speaker device designed for joint listening and embodied performance of the music played on it. The robot generates smoothed real-time beat-synchronized dance moves, uses nonverbal gestures for common ground, and can make and maintain eye-contact. In an experimental between-subject study (n=67), participants listened to songs played on the speaker device, with the robot either moving in sync with the beat, moving off-beat, or not moving at all. We found that while the robot's beat precision was not consciously detected by Ps, an on-beat robot positively affected song liking. There was no effect on overall experience enjoyment. In addition, the robot's response caused Ps to attribute more positive human-like traits to the robot, as well as rate the robot as more similar to themselves. Notably, personal listening habits (solitary vs. social) affected agent attributions. This work points to a larger question, namely how a robot's perceived response to an event might affect a human's perception of the same event.