Playing Pairs with Pepper

TL;DR

This study investigates how robot anthropomorphism influences human trust, using an interaction game with Pepper and Husky, showing increased trust with more human-like features and interaction.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence linking robot facial features and interaction to increased human trust, highlighting the importance of anthropomorphism in robot design.

Findings

80% of participants felt facial features helped establish trust

90% of participants confirmed trust increased after interaction

Positive correlation between anthropomorphism and trust

Abstract

As robots become increasingly prevalent in almost all areas of society, the factors affecting humans trust in those robots becomes increasingly important. This paper is intended to investigate the factor of robot attributes, looking specifically at the relationship between anthropomorphism and human development of trust. To achieve this, an interaction game, Matching the Pairs, was designed and implemented on two robots of varying levels of anthropomorphism, Pepper and Husky. Participants completed both pre- and post-test questionnaires that were compared and analyzed predominantly with the use of quantitative methods, such as paired sample t-tests. Post-test analyses suggested a positive relationship between trust and anthropomorphism with $80\%$ of participants confirming that the robots' adoption of facial features assisted in establishing trust. The results also indicated a positive relationship between interaction and trust with $90\%$ of participants confirming this for both robots post-test