Are robots like people?

Abstract

Identifying links between human personality and attributed robot personality is a relatively new area of human–robot interaction. In this paper we report on an exploratory study that investigates human and robot personality traits as part of a human–robot interaction trial. The trials took place in a simulated living-room scenario involving 28 participants and a human-sized robot of mechanical appearance. Participants interacted with the robot in two task scenarios relevant to a ‘robot in the home’ context. It was found that participants’ evaluations of their own personality traits are related to their evaluations of the robot’s personality traits. The statistical analysis of questionnaire data yields several statistically significant results: (a) Participants do not tend to assign their personality traits to match the robots’, (b) For individual personality traits, participants rated themselves as having stronger personality characteristics compared to the robot, (c) Specific significant correlations were found between participants’ and robot personality traits, and (d) Significant group differences for participant gender, age and technological background are highlighted. The results are discussed in light of developing personalized robot companions.