Effects of Appearance and Functions on Likability and Perceived Occupational Suitability of Robots

Abstract

This article reports three experiments that examined the association between (a) appearances and perceived capabilities of robots, (b) appearance and capabilities of robots and liking for the robots, and (c) perceived capabilities of robots and judgments concerning their suitability for different occupations. In Experiment 1, the authors found that participants perceived human- and animal-like robots to have relatively more warmth-related (e.g., emotion) capabilities than machinelike robots have. In Experiment 2, the authors found that liking for robots was not affected by their human likeness or their having warmth or competence capabilities. In Experiment 3, participants generally thought that robots should have information-processing and communication capabilities more than sensory and emotion capabilities. More interestingly, participants considered robots with different capabilities to be suitable for different occupations, preferring robots with emotion capabilities more in occupations that require frequent interactions with humans than in occupations that do not.