Using Focus Group Interviews to Examine Biased Experiences in Human-Robot-Interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores how focus group interviews can reveal biased experiences and attitudes towards social robots in public spaces, emphasizing diversity measurement and methodological insights.

Contribution

It introduces a focus group interview method to examine bias and diversity in citizen experiences with social robots, highlighting measurement techniques.

Findings

Focus groups uncover diverse biases and attitudes.

Methodology for measuring diversity in robot interaction experiences.

Insights into public perceptions of social robots.

Abstract

When deploying interactive agents like (social) robots in public spaces they need to be able to interact with a diverse audience, with members each having individual diversity characteristics and prior experiences with interactive systems. To cater for these various predispositions, it is important to examine what experiences citizens have made with interactive systems and how these experiences might create a bias towards such systems. To analyze these bias-inducing experiences, focus group interviews have been conducted to learn of citizens individual discrimination experiences, their attitudes towards and arguments for and against the deployment of social robots in public spaces. This extended abstract focuses especially on the method and measurement of diversity.