The influence of task complexity on acceptance and trust in human-robot interaction - gender and age differences

Abstract

An increase of human-robot collaboration is expected in the near future. Many people are already experiencing this in their working life, especially in the industrial context for example in production. As technology continues to improve, the number of scenarios and tasks in which humans and robots can interact with each other is also increasing. Therefore, it is important to focus on how humans and robots can work together in the future, while ensuring that negative emotions and mistrust towards this new form of work environment are avoided.The aim of the presented online study was therefore to get more insight in this important future field. Overall, 29 men and 42 women (N = 71) aged between 19 and 64 years (M = 31.44, SD = 13.30) participated in the study. All participants assessed four different scenarios were humans interact with robots in an industrial context. To assess the influence of task complexity on the subjectively assessed acceptance and trust, task complexity was increased with each scenario. The results show, significant assessment differences regarding the different levels of task complexity. Furthermore, women seem to assess the different interaction tasks as significantly more useful and satisfying than men. Regarding trust an interaction of age and gender can be shown.The results of the presented exploratory study can help to understand how the interaction of human and robots is seen today and shall help to get more insight in this important future field.