'Doing the right thing wrong' - Personality and tolerance to uncomfortable robot approaches

Abstract

The study presented in this paper explored the relationships between subject personality and preferences in the direction from which a robot approached the human participants (N=42) in order to deliver an object in a naturalistic `living room' setting. Personality was assessed using the Big Five Domain Scale. No consistent significant relationships were found between personality traits and preferred approach directions; however, a consistent nonsignificant trend was found in which high scores on the personality trait extraversion was associated with a higher degree of tolerance to the approach directions rated overall as most uncomfortable. The implications of the results are discussed both from a theoretical and methodological viewpoint