Robot-stated limitations but not intentions promote user assistance
This work addresses the problem of designing effective social robots for human assistance scenarios, though it is incremental by applying known social psychology insights to HRI.
The study investigated how a robot's personality affects user cooperation in human-robot interaction, finding that participants preferred likable social robots over more capable ones, reflecting social decisions from human relationships.
Human-Robot-Interaction (HRI) research is typically built around the premise that the robot serves to assist a human in achieving a human-led goal or shared task. However, there are many circumstances during HRI in which a robot may need the assistance of a human in shared tasks or to achieve goals. We use the ROBO-GUIDE model as a case study, and insights from social psychology, to examine how a robot's personality can impact on user cooperation. A study of 364 participants indicates that individuals may prefer to use likable social robots ahead of those designed to appear more capable; this outcome reflects known social decisions in human interpersonal relationships. This work further demonstrates the value of social psychology in developing social robots and exploring HRI.