Abstract
As robots become more prevalent in public spaces, such as museums, malls, and schools, they are coming into increasing contact with groups of people, rather than just individuals. Groups, compared to individuals, can differ in robot acceptance based on the mere presence of a group, group characteristics such as entitativity (i.e., cohesiveness), and group social norms; however, group dynamics are seldom studied in relation to robots in naturalistic settings. To examine how these factors affect human-robot interaction, we observed 2,714 people in a Japanese mall receiving directions from the humanoid robot Robovie. Video and survey responses evaluating the interaction indicate that groups, especially entitative groups, interacted more often, for longer, and more positively with the robot than individuals. Participants also followed the social norms of the groups they were part of; participants who would not be expected to interact with the robot based on their individual characteristics were more likely to interact with it if other members of their group did. These results illustrate the importance of taking into account the presence of a group, group characteristics, and group norms when designing robots for successful interactions in naturalistic settings.
Highlights
Recent years have seen robots in wider use in public venues and organizational contexts, such as malls, airports, schools, and hospitals
Prior research investigated entitative groups that were created in the lab, this study examines naturally-occurring groups in a public space
The results indicated that, in this friendly context, groups, and especially entitative groups, were more positive toward a robot
Summary
Recent years have seen robots in wider use in public venues and organizational contexts, such as malls, airports, schools, and hospitals. In public spaces such as those mentioned, robots interact with groups more often than with individual humans (Kanda et al, 2004; Sabanovic et al, 2006). We test how the presence of a group, group characteristics, and group norms relate to people’s behavior toward a guide robot in a public mall (see Figure 1). We discuss how these variables can be implemented in future robots to enhance interactions with humans
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