Abstract
We are, at our roots, social creatures who are designed to bond with others. Given that robots are expected to increasingly serve humans in social roles, insight into the psychological aspects of our relationships with robots is becoming more relevant. Earlier findings indicate a strong role of a robot’s perceived lifelikeness and gender for human–robot companionships. In an experimental study, we tested whether an individual’s gender (male vs. female) and prior expectation of a robot’s lifelikeness (high vs. low) influence the effect of preconditions originally identified for human friendship formation (i.e., proximity, physical attraction, similarity, reciprocal liking, intimacy) on the individual’s intention to treat a zoomorphic robot as a companion. Our results show that when people have high prior expectations of a robot’s lifelikeness, similar variables that explain why people establish relationships with each other are better able to explain their intentions to treat such a zoomorphic robot as a companion. Thus, companion robots should have a lifelike appearance, which does not necessarily mean a humanlike appearance. Moreover, men and women focus on different preconditions for human friendship formation when they evaluate their intentions to treat zoomorphic robots as companions. This means that developers of companion robots should be aware of these gender differences in bonding, and men and women may even prefer different designs, in terms of either appearance or behavior, for their companion robots.
Highlights
Close relationships are tremendously important to human beings
In a between-subject experiment, we tested whether an individual’s gender and prior expectations of a robot’s lifelikeness influence the effect of preconditions originally identified for human friendship formation on their intentions to treat a zoomorphic robot as a companion
The presented study investigated whether individual’s gender and prior expectations of a robot’s lifelikeness influence the effect of preconditions originally identified for human friendship formation on their intentions to treat a zoomorphic robot as a companion
Summary
Close relationships are tremendously important to human beings. Psychologists have demonstrated the crucial role that friendships play in various aspects of life, from the development of self-identity to self-esteem, and their ability to reduce stress [82]. Robots are expected to serve humans in various social roles, such as nursing, child and elder care, and teaching environments. These socially assistive robots, in addition to their functional requirements, will include socially interactive components [36]. Establishing some form of relationship between user and robot improves the long-term acceptance of robots [44,53]. Investigating the factors that could explain why some people are willing to form such human–robot relationships could help to enhance the long-term acceptance of robots with the capability of social interaction
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