Abstract
The increasing sophistication of social robots has intensified calls for transparency about robots’ machine nature. Initial research has suggested that providing children with information about robots’ mechanical status does not alter children's humanlike perception of, and relationship formation with, social robots. Against this background, our study experimentally investigated the effects of transparency about a robot's lack of human psychological capacities (intelligence, self-consciousness, emotionality, identity construction, social cognition) on children's perceptions of a robot and their relationship to it. Our sample consisted of 144 children aged 8 to 9 years old who interacted with the Nao robot in either a transparent or a control condition. Transparency decreased children's humanlike perception of the robot in terms of animacy, anthropomorphism, social presence, and perceived similarity. Transparency reduced child-robot relationship formation in terms of decreased trust, while children's feelings of closeness toward the robot were not affected.
Highlights
As robots are becoming increasingly social [e.g., 34], and as children have a strong tendency to form social bonds with non-human entities [24], social relationships between children and robots are bound to become more common in the near future [e.g., 12]
We opted for self-report rather than observational measures, because, first, they are considerably less timeconsuming; second, we investigate complex concepts that are difficult to adequately observe; and third, we have good experience with the use of such measures in prior childrobot interaction (CRI) studies [19, 66]
Whereas H2a predicted that transparency would affect child-robot relationship formation in terms of a decrease in closeness, we found no difference in children’s feelings of closeness toward the robot between the transparent condition (M = 3.75, SD = 0.82), and the control condition (M = 3.89, SD = 0.63), F (1, 142) = 1.384, p = .241, part. η2 =
Summary
As robots are becoming increasingly social [e.g., 34], and as children have a strong tendency to form social bonds with non-human entities [24], social relationships between children and robots are bound to become more common in the near future [e.g., 12]. Within the field of childrobot interaction (CRI), child-robot relationship formation constitutes a controversial topic. C. L. van Straten relationships as deceptive, inauthentic [e.g., 58, 61], and as potentially damaging children’s peer friendships [e.g., 34, 62]. The issue of deception has been looked at through the lens of stage magic and illusion [16]. Pearson and Borenstein [52] even highlight the potential benefits of child-robot relationship formation, positing that “to promote the welfare of children effectively, some degree of bonding between the robot and child will have to occur” Pearson and Borenstein [52] even highlight the potential benefits of child-robot relationship formation, positing that “to promote the welfare of children effectively, some degree of bonding between the robot and child will have to occur” (p. 127, emphasis added)
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