How do Patients in a Medical Interview Perceive a Robot versus Human Physician?

Abstract

This paper presents a study investigating perceptions of a human versus NAO robot physician conducting a simulated medical interview with undergraduate students. Results show that both human and NAO doctor were perceived to be credible and produced positive patient affect. However, the human doctor received significantly higher ratings when compared to the NAO. This pattern of results was fully explained by the higher social presence attributed to the human physician.