Asking for Help from a Gendered Robot

Emma Alexander, Caroline Bank, Jie Jessica Yang, Bradley Hayes, Brian Scassellati

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

This project investigates the effects of gender in a human-robot collaboration interaction. In the experiment, participants completed four Sudoku-like puzzles with a robot from which they could verbally elicit help. The robot was given the gendered characteristics of a gendered computer generated voice and either the name Charlotte (female condition) or Charley (male condition). Contrary to expectations from psychology, male participants asked the robot for help more frequently regardless of its assigned gender. Participants of both genders reported feeling more comfortable with a robot assigned the other gender and preferred the male robot's help. Findings indicate that gender effects can be generated in human-robot collaboration through relatively unobtrusive gendering methods and that they may not align with predictions from psychology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014
PublisherThe Cognitive Science Society
Pages2333-2338
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780991196708
StatePublished - 2014
Event36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014 - Quebec City, Canada
Duration: Jul 23 2014Jul 26 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014

Conference

Conference36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityQuebec City
Period7/23/147/26/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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