Placing robots in positions of authority : a human-robot interaction obedience study

Abstract

This paper presents an initial investigation into how people may respond to a robot posing as an authority figure, giving commands. This is an increasingly important question as robots continue to become more autonomous and capable and participate in more task scenarios in which they work with people. We designed and conducted a human-robot interaction obedience experiment with a human and a robot experimenter, and found that people were less obedient to our particular robot than to a human. Our results highlight the complexity of obedience and detail some of the variables involved, and show that, at the very least, people can be pressured by a robot to continue an uncomfortable and highly tedious task.