Children’s Reciprocity and Relationship Formation with a Robot Across Age

Abstract

Reciprocity is central to the formation and maintenance of relationships. Reciprocity andrelationship formation change with children’s development and are key aspects in human–robot interaction. So far, it is unclear how children reciprocate and build a relationship with a social robot and how this reciprocity develops with age. In the current preregistered study, wecollected data from 147 children aged 5-12 years to investigate age differences in reciprocityand relationship formation towards a social robot. To test reciprocity, children completed anAlternated Repeated Ultimatum Game with a social robot and another child. Children alsocompleted a survey on relationship formation to assess robot-related trust, closeness, and social support. Results from a linear-mixed effects Bayesian analysis indicated that childrenreciprocated similarly to a robot as to another child. While reciprocity differed across age withlower values for 8-10-year-olds compared to younger and older children, these age differencesin reciprocity were also observed when children interacted with the robot. Children’srelationship formation with a social robot also changed with age. Our findings suggest thatestablished theories from human-human literature (e.g., age differences in reciprocity) are alsorelevant for human–robot interaction. Children’s age is an important determinant for howchildren interact with and perceive robots.