Transparent robots: How children perceive and relate to a social robot that acknowledges its lack of human psychological capacities and machine status

Abstract

Children will increasingly encounter, and form social relationships with, social robots. Accordingly, scholars have called for transparency toward children about what social robots are and what they can(not) do to manage children's expectations of this new type of communication partner. Prior research has shown that the way adults present social robots to children can influence children's perception of, and relationship formation with, a robot. To date, however, no studies have yet investigated whether a social robot's own provision of transparent information about its (in)abilities can alter how children perceive and relate to it. To fill this gap initially, we conducted a one-factorial between-subject experiment among 276 children aged 8–10 years old. Children interacted with a robot that either provided them with information about its lack of human psychological capacities and machine status, or not. Exposure to this information decreased children's feelings of closeness toward and trust in the robot. Children's tendency to anthropomorphize the robot mediated the effects of transparency on closeness and trust, while their perception of the robot's similarity to themselves only mediated children's feelings of closeness. Our findings are discussed in light of the ongoing ethical discussion on child-robot relationships.