Validation of Robot Interactive Behaviors Through Users Emotional Perception and Their Effects on Trust

When modeling the social behavior of a robot, the simulation of a specific personality or different interaction style may affect the perception of the interaction itself and the acceptability of the robot. Different interaction styles may be simulated through the use of verbal and non-verbal features that may not be easily recognized by the user as intended by the designer. For this reason, this study aimed to evaluate how three different robot interaction styles (i.e., Friendly, Neutral, and Authoritarian) were perceived by humans in the context of a robot carrying out cognitive tests. The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) was proposed to measure the perceived Valence, Arousal, and Dominance. We expected that a Neutral behavior is characterized by low Arousal, a Friendly by high Valence, and an Authoritarian by high Dominance. Moreover, the perception of a Socially Assistive Robot’s behavior is closely linked to trust, which is a key component to the success of any care-provider/user relationship. Hence, a Trust Perception Scale was used to explore the effect of the interaction style on trust. The results confirmed our hypothesis and showed a significant difference between each value with the others. Furthermore, we expected to obtain a higher value of trust with the Authoritarian since the performance of the users who interacted with the Authoritarian was better than the others. However, this hypothesis was not confirmed by the results.