Robot Persuasiveness Depending on User Gender

Robot’s persuasive abilities have previously shown contradictory results with some depending on robot gender and some on user gender. Therefore, we conducted a replication study with the Furhat robot. The study measured differences in how persuasive (ethos, pathos, and logos) a more feminine and a more masculine looking robot was perceived by female or male participants. We hypothesised that a platform with both feminine/masculine faces and voices enables larger differences between the robot’s persuasiveness compared to a female/male NAO robot (original study). Results showed statistically significant differences regarding persuasiveness between participant gender but none for the robot gender. One difference, compared to the original study, was that men rated ethos higher than women did.