Social perception of Embodied Digital Technologies interacting with humans

Abstract

Social perception of Embodied Digital Technologies (EDTs) governs their successful adoption. However, prior findings on processes governing the social perception of EDTs and corresponding attributions are inconclusive. With the present study, we investigate social perception and trustworthiness of robots and Telepresence Systems (TPS). 293 Participants rated five different EDTs after watching a short video sequence of a space sharing conflict between the EDT and a human in terms of anthropomorphism, sociability/morality, activity/cooperation, competence, and trustworthiness. We found differences between the robots for all four social dimensions. TPS were perceived differently only in terms of anthropomorphism. Trustworthiness was not attributed differently to the EDTs. We found associations between social perception of EDTs and personality traits. With our findings, we add to the growing body of research on social perception of EDTs and show that EDTs are indeed perceived differently in dependence of their design.