Robot's Inner Speech Effects on Trust and Anthropomorphic Cues in Human-Robot Cooperation

TL;DR

This study explores how a robot's overt self-talk, mimicking human inner speech, can enhance human trust and perceptions of anthropomorphism during cooperative interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of robot inner speech as a means to improve transparency and anthropomorphism, demonstrating its positive effect on human trust.

Findings

Participants showed increased trust after interaction.

Perception of robot's anthropomorphic features increased.

Inner speech influenced human-robot cooperation outcomes.

Abstract

Inner Speech is an essential but also elusive human psychological process which refers to an everyday covert internal conversation with oneself. We argue that programming a robot with an overt self-talk system, which simulates human inner speech, might enhance human trust by improving robot transparency and anthropomorphism. For this reasons, this work aims to investigate if robot's inner speech, here intended as overt self-talk, affects human trust and anthropomorphism when human and robot cooperate. A group of participants was engaged in collaboration with the robot. During cooperation, the robot talks to itself. To evaluate if the robot's inner speech influences human trust, two questionnaires were administered to each participant before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the cooperative session with the robot. Preliminary results evidenced differences between the answers of participants in the pre-test and post-test assessment, suggesting that robot's inner speech influences human trust. Indeed, participant's levels of trust and perception of robot anthropomorphic features increase after the experimental interaction with the robot.