Abstract
The present research examines how a robot's physical anthropomorphism interacts with perceived ability of robots to impact the level of realistic and identity threat that people perceive from robots and how it affects their support for robotics research. Experimental data revealed that participants perceived robots to be significantly more threatening to humans after watching a video of an android that could allegedly outperform humans on various physical and mental tasks relative to a humanoid robot that could do the same. However, when participants were not provided with information about a new generation of robots' ability relative to humans, then no significant differences were found in perceived threat following exposure to either the android or humanoid robots. Similarly, participants also expressed less support for robotics research after seeing an android relative to a humanoid robot outperform humans. However, when provided with no information about robots' ability relative to humans, then participants showed marginally decreased support for robotics research following exposure to the humanoid relative to the android robot. Taken together, these findings suggest that very humanlike robots can not only be perceived as a realistic threat to human jobs, safety, and resources, but can also be seen as a threat to human identity and uniqueness, especially if such robots also outperform humans. We also demonstrate the potential downside of such robots to the public's willingness to support and fund robotics research.
- Aggarwal, P., & McGill, A. L. (2007). Is that car smiling at me? Schema congruity as a basis for evaluating anthropomorphized products. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 468--479.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Asendorpf, J. B., Conner, M., De Fruyt, F., De Houwer, J., Denissen, J. A., Fiedler, K., . . . Wicherts, J. M. (2013). Recommendations for increasing replicability in psychology. European Journal of Personality, 27(2), 108--119.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bartneck, C. (2008). Who like androids more: Japanese or US Americans? In Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN (pp. 553--557). Munich, Germany.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bartneck, C., Bleeker, T., Bun, J., Fens, P., & Riet, L. (2010). The influence of robot anthropomorphism on the feelings of embarrassment when interacting with robots. Paladyn, 1--7.Google Scholar
- Bartneck, C., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., & Hagita, N. (2007). Is the uncanny valley an uncanny cliff? In Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (pp. 368--373). Jeju, Republic of Korea.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bartneck, C., Verbunt, M., Mubin, O., & Al Mahmud, A. (2007). To kill a mockingbird robot. In Proceedings of the 2007 ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2007): Robot as Team Member (pp. 81--87). Arlington, VA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bethel, C. L., Salomon, K., & Murphy, R. R. (2009). Preliminary results: Humans find emotive non-anthropomorphic robots more calming. In Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2009) (pp. 291--292). San Diego, CA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Butz, D. A., & Yogeeswaran, K. (2011). A new threat in the air: Macroeconomic threat increases prejudice against Asian Americans. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(1), 22--27.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Duffy, B. R. (2003). Anthropomorphism and the social robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 42(3--4), 177--190.Google Scholar
- Fasola, J., & Matarić, M. J. (2012). Using socially assistive human-robot interaction to motivate physical exercise for older adults. In Proceedings of the IEEE---Special Issue on Quality of Life Technology, T. Kanade, ed. Vol. 100(August), pp. 2512--2526. Piscataway, NJ.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Feil-Seifer, D., & Matarić, M. J. (2011). Automated detection and classification of positive vs. negative robot interactions with children with autism using distance-based features. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2011), pp. 323--330. Lausanne, Switzerland. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Giullian, N., Ricks, D., Atherton, A., Colton, M., Goodrich, M., & Brinton, B. (2010). Detailed requirements for robots in autism therapy. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. (pp. 2595--2602). Istanbul, Turkey.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Goetz, J., Kiesler, S., & Powers, A. (2003). Matching robot appearance and behavior to tasks to improve human-robot cooperation. In Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN 2003) (pp. 55--60).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gray, K., & Wegner, D. M. (2012). Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley. Cognition, 125(1), 125--130.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Haring, K. S., Silvera-Tawil, D., Matsumoto, Y., Velonaki, M., & Watanabe, K. (2014). Perception of an android robot in Japan and Australia: A cross-cultural comparison. In M. Beetz, B. Johnston, & M.-A. Williams (Eds.), Social Robotics (pp. 166--175). Springer International Publishing: Sydney, Australia.Google Scholar
- Hancock, P.A., Billings, D.R., Schaefer, K. E., Chen, J.Y.C., de Visser, E.J., & Parasuraman, R. (2011). A meta-analysis of factors affecting trust in human-robot interaction. Human Factors, 53(5), 517--527.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hewstone, M. H., Rubin, M., Willis, H. (2002). Intergroup bias. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 575--604.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jetten, J., Spears, R., & Manstead, A. R. (1998). Defining dimensions of distinctiveness: Group variability makes a difference to differentiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1481--1492.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jetten, J., Spears, R., & Manstead, A. R. (1997). Distinctiveness threat and prototypicality: Combined effects on intergroup discrimination and collective self-esteem. European Journal of Social Psychology, 27(6), 635--657.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kanda, T., Miyashita, T., Osada, T., Haikawa, Y., & Ishiguro, H. (2005). Analysis of humanoid appearances in human-robot interaction. In Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2005), (pp.62--69). Edmonton, AB, Canada.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kätsyri, J., Förger, K., Mäkäräinen, M., & Takala, T. (2015). A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: Support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 390.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kiesler, S., & Hinds, P. (2004). Introduction to this special issue on human-robot interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 19(1), 1--8. Google ScholarDigital Library
- King, R. D., Whelan, K. E., Jones, F. M., & Philip, G. K. (2004). Functional genomic hypothesis generation and experimentation by a robot scientist. Nature, 427, 247--252.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Lee, H. R., & Sabanović, S. (2014). Culturally variable preferences for robot design and use in South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-robot Interaction (pp. 17--24). New York, NY: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- LeVine, R. A., & Campbell, D. T. (1972). Ethnocentrism: Theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes, and group behavior. Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
- Lewis, T. (2015). Don't let artificial intelligence take over, top scientists warn. Live Science. Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/49419-artificial-intelligence-dangers-letter.htmlGoogle Scholar
- Lohse, M. (2011). Bridging the gap between users' expectations and system evaluations. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (pp. 485--490). Atlanta, GA.Google ScholarCross Ref
- MacDorman, K. F., & Chattopadhyay, D. (2016). Reducing consistency in human realism increases the uncanny valley effect; increasing category uncertainty does not. Cognition, 146, 190--205.Google ScholarCross Ref
- MacDorman, K. F., & Ishiguro, H. (2006). The uncanny advantage of using androids in cognitive and social science research. Interaction Studies, 7(3), 297--337.Google ScholarCross Ref
- MacDorman, K. F., Srinivas, P., & Patel, H. (2013). The uncanny valley does not interfere with level 1 visual perspective taking. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1671--1685. Google ScholarDigital Library
- MacDorman, K. F., Vasudevan, S. K., & Ho, C.-C. (2008). Does Japan really have robot mania? Comparing attitudes by implicit and explicit measures. AI & SOCIETY, 23(4), 485--510. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Maddux W. W., Galinsky A. D., Cuddy A. J., Polifroni, M. (2008). When being a model minority is good...and bad: Realistic threat explains negativity toward Asian Americans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 34(1), 74--89.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mori, M. (1970). The uncanny valley. Energy, 7(4), 33--35.Google Scholar
- Resnick, B. (2016). What psychology's crisis means for the future of science. Vox. Retrieved from: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/14/11219446/psychology-replication-crisisGoogle Scholar
- Riek, L. D., Rabinowitch, T. C., Chakrabarti, B., & Robinson, P. (2009). Empathizing with robots: Fellow feeling along the anthropomorphic spectrum. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, (ACII 2009) (pp. 1--6).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Riek, B. M., Mania, E. W., & Gaertner, S. L. (2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 336--353.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ripley, W. (2014). Domo arigato, Mr Roberto: Japan's robot revolution. CNN. Retrieved from: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/15/world/asia/japans-robot-revolutionGoogle Scholar
- Rosenthal-von der Pütten, A. M., & Krämer, N. C. (2014). How design characteristics of robots determine evaluation and uncanny valley related responses. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 422--439. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rosenthal-von der Pütten, A. M., & Krämer, N. C. (2015). Individuals' evaluations of and attitudes towards potentially uncanny robots. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7(5), 799--824.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sauppé, A., & Mutlu, B. (2015). The social impact of a robot co-worker in industrial settings. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3613--3622). New York, NY: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Saygin, A. P., Chaminade, T., Ishiguro, H., Driver, J., & Frith, C. (2012). The thing that should not be: Predictive coding and the uncanny valley in perceiving human and humanoid robot actions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(4), 413--422.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White J., Hood, W. R., Sherif, C. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict and cooperation: the robbers cave experiment. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange.Google Scholar
- Spears R, Jetten J, & Scheepers D. (2002). Distinctiveness and the definition of collective self: A tripartite model. In A. Tesser, D. A. Stapel, & J. V. Wood (Eds.), Self and motivation: Emerging psychological perspective (pp. 141--171). Lexington, KY: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
- Stephan, W. G., Ybarra, O., & Bachman, G. (1999). Prejudice toward immigrants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29(11), 2221--2237.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Stewart, J. (2011). Ready for the robot revolution? BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-15146053Google Scholar
- Syrdal, D. S., Dautenhahn, K., Walters, M. L., & Koay, K. L. (2008). Sharing spaces with robots in a home scenario: Anthropomorphic attributions and their effect on proxemic expectations and evaluations in a live HRI trial. In Proceedings of the AAAI Fall Symposium -- Technical Report (Vol. FS-08--02, pp. 116--123). Arlington, VA.Google Scholar
- Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), The Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 7--25). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
- Wade, E., Parnandi, A. R., & Matarić, M. J. (2011). Using socially assistive robotics to augment motor task performance in individuals post-stroke. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp. 2403--2408). San Francisco, CA.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Wang, S., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Rochat, P. (2015). The uncanny valley: Existence and explanations. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 393--407.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Wang, L., Rau, P.-L. P., Evers, V., Robinson, B. K., & Hinds, P. (2010). When in Rome: The role of culture and context in adherence to robot recommendations. In Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-robot Interaction (pp. 359--366). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1734454.1734578 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Waugh, R. (2015). Stephen Hawking warns of the danger of `intelligent' robots. Metro, UK. Retrieved from: http://metro.co.uk/2015/01/13/stephen-hawking-warns-of-the-dangers-of-intelligent-robots-5020270Google Scholar
- Yogeeswaran, K., & Dasgupta, N. (2014). The devil is in the details: Abstract versus concrete construals of multiculturalism differentially impact intergroup relations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(5), 772--789.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Yogeeswaran, K., Dasgupta, N., & Gomez, C. (2012). A new American dilemma? The effect of ethnic identification and public service on the national inclusion of ethnic minorities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42(6), 691--705.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Złotowski, J., Sumioka, H., Nishio, S., Glas, D., Bartneck, C., & Ishiguro, H. (2015). Persistence of the uncanny valley: Influence of repeated interactions and a robot's attitude on its perception. Frontiers in Cognitive Science, 6(883), 1--13.Google Scholar
- Złotowski, J., Proudfoot, D., & Bartneck, C. (2013). More human than human: Does the uncanny curve really matter? In Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction 2013 (HRI 2013): Workshop on Design of Human Likeness in HRI From Uncanny Valley to Minimal Design (pp. 7--13). Tokyo, Japan.Google Scholar
- Złotowski, J., Proudfoot, D., Yogeeswaran, K., & Bartneck, C. (2015). Anthropomorphism: Opportunities and challenges in human-robot interaction. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7, 347--360.Google ScholarCross Ref
Recommendations
Effects of anticipated human-robot interaction and predictability of robot behavior on perceptions of anthropomorphism
HRI '11: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Human-robot interactionRecent research has shown that anthropomorphism represents a means to facilitate HRI. Under which conditions do people anthropomorphize robots and other nonhuman agents? This research question was investigated in an experiment that manipulated ...
Effects of robot-human versus robot-robot behavior and entitativity on anthropomorphism and willingness to interact
AbstractAs robots become prevalent, people are increasingly interacting with multiple robots at once. Thus, it is important to not only examine how robot behavior toward humans affects interaction, but how robot behavior toward other robots ...
Highlights- Social robot behavior toward robots increased anthropomorphism of robots.
- ...
I am my robot: the impact of robot-building and robot form on operators
HRI '09: Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE international conference on Human robot interactionAs robots become more pervasive, operators will develop richer relationships with them. In a 2 (robot form: humanoid vs. car) x 2 (assembler: self vs. other) between-participants experiment (N=56), participants assembled either a humanoid or car robot. ...
Comments