Strangers on a Team?: Human Companions, Compared to Strangers or Individuals, are More Likely to Reject a Robot Teammate

As robots become more common, people interact with them individually, with strangers, and with friends. For example, when coming across a robot in a mall, a family might ask it for instructions. An individual person might hesitate to interact with the robot until they see another person interacting, and then explore the robot together. Although human–robot interaction (HRI) research has recently uncovered the importance of examining differences in group behavior toward robots versus individuals’ behavior, thus far, most HRI research has not distinguished behavior based on group type (e.g., stranger, companion). In this online lab-based study, we explore how individuals, strangers, and companions collaborate with robot teammates. We test competing hypotheses: (1) More cohesive companion groups will form a human subgroup and exclude the robots more than strangers or individuals, vs. (2) More cohesive companion groups will provide social support to interact better with the novel robotic technology than strangers or individuals. In this cooperative context in which participants were required to interact with the robot, results supported H1: the subgroup hypothesis. Based on these findings, people deploying robots should note that if people are required to interact with the robots, the interactions may not go as smoothly for companion groups compared to stranger groups or individuals.