Manners Matter

Abstract

The ‘intuitive’ trust people feel when encountering robots in public spaces is a key determinant of their interactions with the systems. To study the trust we presented subjects with static images of a robot performing an access-control task, interacting with younger and older male and female civilians, applying polite or impolite behavior. Our results showed strong effects of the robot’s behavior. Age and gender of the people interacting with the robot had no significant effect on participants’ impressions of the robot’s attributes. This preliminary study shows that politeness may be a crucial determinant of people’s perception of peacekeeping robots.