As robots become an ever greater presence in human life, the question of how lifelike to make them has taken on greater concern.  Intuitively, we might assume that children might prefer robots to appear friendly-looking, but research from Radboud University suggests that it is actually adults that want this from their robotic companions.

The researchers wanted to understand the various factors that underpin whether we trust robots and other forms of artificial intelligence or not.

“This showed that, in comparison to children, it’s more important to adults that a robot looks human,” they explain. “However, it turns out that children feel that it’s important that a robot expresses human emotions and has human thoughts.”

“Previous research has already shown that people are capable of attributing human characteristics to robots. But this research study is the first time that we’ve looked at the differences between children and adults in this respect. We’re also looking at various forms of anthropomorphism: Do emotions develop because a robot looks human, or because it behaves like a human being?”

Trusting the machine

The study found that for children, the appearance of the robot was not especially important, although they did appear to be more willing to trust the robot if the machine was able to exhibit human-like behavior.

“Now that young children are increasingly surrounded by robots, the research study shows that the way in which we give context to these robots is significant,” the researchers continue. “If you don’t take the time to teach your children about robots, you run the risk that a child will suddenly start sharing their toys with a smart vacuum cleaner.”

The study found that the context of the interaction was crucially important to how people behaved with the robot and the expectations they had of it.  For example, if adults were asked to rescue a robot from a dangerous situation, they were more inclined to do so if it had human appearance, but less happy if they were the ones being rescued.

“This shows that a human appearance may sometimes form an obstacle for the robot. You should use a robot for the purpose for which it was developed,” the researchers explain. “For example, when it comes to surgical assistance during an operation, you don’t want to be assisted by an apparatus that has clumsy social capacities; in such a case, it’s better to rely on faceless intelligence. As for schools, it’s important that robots not only appear to be competent but that they’re also sociable.”

With robots playing an increasing role in our lives, the authors believe it’s vital that we gain a greater understanding of how and where trust with robots is developed (or lost) so that our encounters with them can be as productive as possible.

“It’s important that we continue to think about this issue: what place should we give robots in our society, and what impact will this have on the social connections that we make with each other?” they conclude.