Mind attribution to Androids: A comparative study with Italian and Japanese adolescents

Abstract

The attribution of mental states to humanoid robots is a complex psychological phenomenon, as it depends on several factors, including robot's appearance, its behaviour, its country of origin, as well as peoples' cultural background, and exposition to robots. In this paper, we present a cross-cultural study on mind attribution to androids comparing Italian and Japanese high school students' evaluations. Results suggest that the cultural in-group bias not necessarily applies to mind attribution, as some other factors, such as anthropomorphism of nature, and exposure to robots related popular culture, can modify how androids are perceived.