Negative Attitudes toward minimalistic Robots with intragroup communication styles

Abstract

With robots becoming more prevalent in daily life, it is important to understand human attitudes toward robots not only when humans interact with them directly, as most research examines, but also when people are indirectly exposed to robots performing nonsocial tasks (e.g., cleaning) in their vicinity. Because minimalistic robots are at present more likely to be found in households than human-like robots, this study examined human reactions to nonsocial, nonanthropomorphic robots. The specific focus of this study was on how robot communication style during human-robot co-location affects human perceptions of a group of robots. This paper also evaluates the relationship between participants' scores on the Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (NARS) and their behavioral response to and perceptions of robots in their environment. Our results suggest that robot communication style did not affect perceptions of robots and that responses on the NARS may not translate directly to behavior toward robots.