Robot Personality Insights. Designing Suitable Robot Personalities for Different Domains

Abstract

Abstract With the development of social robots that are primarily designed for interacting with humans, particular facets of interaction need to be explored. One of them is the manifestation of robot personalities, which have the potential to raise acceptance and enhance user experience if done appropriate – or ruin both if done wrong. The present paper argues for the relevance of suitable robot personalities and discusses the factors that affect suitability, in particular interaction domain and personal preferences. An experiment ( <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <m:mi mathvariant="normal">N</m:mi> <m:mo>=</m:mo> <m:mn>30</m:mn> </m:math> $\mathrm{N}=30$ ) with four different interaction scenarios (goal- and experience oriented) and three robot personalities (positive, neutral, negative) was performed to explore effects of personality and domain on personality suitability and acceptance. Results indicate that users can differentiate between different robot personalities and evaluate accordingly. In a goal-oriented stressful situation (train-ticket purchase under time pressure) the neutral personality was rated best. In experience-oriented scenarios, the positive robot personality was preferred. In the context of strictly performance oriented tasks, the effect of robot personality seems to be insignificant. Personal preferences for personalities seem to be influential, however, no clear pattern could be found. Lastly, directions for future research are depicted and implications for researchers and designers are discussed.