Influence of Users' Personality Traits on Psychological Stress Relief Effects by Robots' Different Reactions to Approach from Users

Abstract

Considering that robot-assisted activities spread to ordinary homes, this study was conducted as a part of acquiring the information on the relationship between users' characteristics, reactions from a robot, and the effects of those reactions. I compared the influence of users' personality traits on psychological stress relief effects obtained by interacting with tolerant, rejective, and emotional reaction robots to approach from users. As a result, I confirmed that agreeableness and neuroticism personality traits have significant influences on relaxing the fatigue obtained by tolerant reactions from a robot and disarming the anger obtained by emotional reactions from a robot, respectively. I also confirmed that improving the vigor obtained by rejective reactions from a robot could not be expected independently of users' personality traits. These results suggest that it should avoid using the robot with a high ratio of rejective reactions in any robot-assisted activities. Besides, it is better to use the robot with a high ratio of tolerant reactions if a user with high agreeableness needs effects of relaxing the fatigue, and use the robot with a high ratio of emotional reactions if a user with high neuroticism needs effects of disarming the anger.