Influence of Personality Traits on Helping Behaviour in Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract

Trait models of personality can be used to predict prosocial behaviour. In the research field of human-robot interaction, there are many hints that interaction patterns learned from interacting with other humans also guide human behaviour regarding robots. This leads to the question, whether behaviour towards robots can be predicted by trait models of personality as well. To answer this question for the case of helping behaviour towards robots, an experiment was designed in which 50 participants answered questionnaires on personality (HEXACO-PI-R-100) and on negative attitudes towards robots (NARS), and were observed while being repeatedly asked for help by a robot. The personality dimensions of Conscientiousness and Openness influenced the observed behaviour significantly. These results show that personality also affects human-robot interaction. Nonetheless, this present work is only a first step towards a more thorough understanding of the influencing factors of successful human-robot interaction.