How Age Influences the Interpretation of Emotional Body Language in Humanoid Robots -- long paper version

TL;DR

This empirical study explores how different age groups interpret emotional body language in humanoid robots, revealing age-related similarities and differences in perception and response to robotic emotional cues.

Contribution

It provides new insights into age-based variations in interpreting robot emotions, informing design for diverse user groups.

Findings

Older and younger adults show similar interpretations, differing from children.

Children interpret emotional cues differently from adults.

Age influences perception and response to robotic emotional expressions.

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical study investigating how individuals across different age groups, children, young and older adults, interpret emotional body language expressed by the humanoid robot NAO. The aim is to offer insights into how users perceive and respond to emotional cues from robotic agents, through an empirical evaluation of the robot's effectiveness in conveying emotions to different groups of users. By analyzing data collected from elderly participants and comparing these findings with previously gathered data from young adults and children, the study highlights similarities and differences between the groups, with younger and older users more similar but different from young adults.