Gendered Tour-guide Robots and Their Influence on User Attitude and Behavior

Abstract

In response to the gender equality policy of Taiwanese government and the concept of Gendered Innovations (GI), this paper investigates the influence of gender on user attitude and behavior toward tour-guide robots in learning contexts. In this study, each participant was given an individual appointment to interact with a gendered robot at the Behavioral Research Lab of NTUST in Taiwan, and received NT$150 beforehand as compensation. After a short lab tour, participants were requested to make a donation and fill in a questionnaire by the robot. Findings showed that the gender of robot did not influence the rated persuasiveness of the robot, and female participants rated the robots as more credible than men in part. However, attitude-behavior inconsistency was found in this study. Subjects tended to rate the robot of the same gender as more persuasive than the robot of opposite gender, but male subjects in fact donated more money to female robots, while female subjects showed little preference.