Do as I say

Abstract

Humans are known to feel engaged and at the same time apprehensive when presented with unpredictable behaviour of other agents or humans. Predictable behaviour is thought to be reliable but boring. We argue that is imperative to evaluate human response to (un)predictable robots for a better understanding of Human Robot Interaction Scenarios, manipulated across robot embodiment. The results of our controlled experiment with 23 participants showed that predictable robot behaviour resulted in more patience on behalf of the user and robot embodiment had no significant effect. In conclusion, we also discuss the importance of robot role on the perception of predictability in robot behaviour.