The relation between people's attitude and anxiety towards robots in human-robot interaction

Abstract

This paper examines the relation between an interaction with a robot and peoples' attitudes and emotion towards robots. In our study, participants have had an acquaintance talk with a social robot and both their general attitude and anxiety towards social robots were measured before and after the interaction. This study has found mixed results as compared to earlier studies. However, the utility of negative attitude and anxiety to explain human behavior in interactions with robots is supported. Furthermore, a human-robot interaction (HRI) changes people's attitudes and anxiety towards robots. Thus, from a design perspective, it seems important to further investigate which aspects of robots evoke what type of emotions and how this influences the overall evaluation of robots.