Responses to robot social roles and social role framing

Abstract

Promoting dependents' perceptions of point-of-injury care robots as social actors may elicit feelings of companionship and diminish stress. However, numerous rescuers may control these robots and communicate with dependents through the robot, creating communication and interaction challenges that may be best addressed by creating a pure medium robot expressing no social identity. In addition, setting dependents' expectations regarding the robot's social role may improve perceptions of the robot and trust in the robot's suggestions. In a 3 (role: pure medium vs. social medium vs. social actor) × 2 (framing: framed vs. unframed) between-participants design, participants interacted with a simulation of a robot in a search and rescue context (N=84). Robot social behavior decreased participants' fear, yet made participants feel more isolated. Framing generated increased trust in the robot. Implications for the theory and design of robots and human-robot interaction are discussed.