Abstract
Personality variables play an important role in how individuals relate to the world around them, including how they view their peers. Such peers now include machine entities, such as robots. This study examined the relationship between the personality trait of extroversion and the tendency to view a robot as anthropomorphic in an experimental setting. To evaluate this relationship, 486 participants were required to complete measures of the big five personality traits (The Mini IPIP) and Negative Attitudes to Robots Scale (NARS). Participants then viewed videos and images of robots performing common jobs (i.e., warehouse technician, IED detection), and then rated these robots via an assessment instrument scaling anthropomorphism. A significant positive relationship between extroversion and the tendency toward anthropomorphization of the robots was found. A Bayesian regression analysis was performed, which indicated the strength of extroversion as a predictor of the tendency to anthropomorphize. We conclude that personality dimensions influence how an individual views the robot that they interact with. These findings are important, as the relationship between personality and the tendency to anthropomorphize robots is likely to influence the acceptance and use of robots.
Highlights
In the futuristic television cartoon, The Jetsons, their home assistance robot “Rosie,” was portrayed as an accepted part of the family
Participant scores on the Negative Attitudes to Robots Scale (NARS) were correlated with their personality scores on the IPIP
The correlations between participant extroversion and the NARS, for social situations and interactions, were moderate [r(485) = 0.552, and r(485) = 0.538, respectively]. These two aspects of the NARS had a stronger relationship with extroversion than any of the other personality factors
Summary
In the futuristic television cartoon, The Jetsons, their home assistance robot “Rosie,” was portrayed as an accepted part of the family. Robot likeability may be influenced by the users’ own personality traits If users view their interactions with robots in a manner similar to the way they view their human-human interactions, extroverts may derive a more positive affect from the experience than introverts would (Watson and Clark, 1997). A study on individuals’ responses to advertisements found that the more extroverted a person considered their ideal self to be, the more positively they rated the products in advertisements they viewed (Chang, 2001) If such personality effects can be extended to robots, the more anthropomorphic or human-like someone perceives a robot to be, the more likely they are to form a bond with it and to find it likable. A participant’s extroversion will be a positive predictor of how much they express their like for the candidate robot
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