Likert or Not? How Using Likert Rather Than Biposlar Ratings Reveal Individual Difference Scores Using the Godspeed Scales

We examined how a revised presentation method of The Godspeed Scales affected results accruing from such tests which concern user judgments of anthropomorphism, animacy, likability, perceived intelligence, and perceived safety of robots. Through the use of Likert-type scales, rather than the original semantic- or bipolar-scale structure, we correlated results in order to determine which word pairs in the original scales were truly opposite in their meanings, where true opposites were anticipated to possess a strongly negative correlation. Results showed that individual differences in each participant’s baseline tendency to choose a rating exerted the strongest relationship with their overall scores. When those differences were accounted for the majority of the word-pairs used in the Godspeed Scale had negative correlations. These findings indicate that individual differences, rather than features of the robot per se, played the largest part in predicting how people will perceive any particular robot.