Do We Really Like Robots that Match our Personality? The Case of Big-Five Traits, Godspeed Scores and Robotic Gestures

Abstract

This work investigates the role of the attraction paradigm-the tendency to associate similarity and attraction in interpersonal relations-in Human-Robot Interaction. The experiment presented here involved 30 human observers who watched and rated 45 robotic gestures in terms of Big-Five personality traits and Godspeed scores. The results show that, for 24 of the 30 observers, there was a statistically significant correlation between the Godspeed scores and the perceived similarity between the robot's personality and their own. However, the association was positive for 15 subjectsmeaning that for these there is a similarity-attraction effectand negative for the other 9-meaning that for these there is a complementarity-attraction effect. Furthermore, the strength of the effect depends on the particular trait under examination.

Shaping Robot Gestures to Shape Users' Perception

“…In previous studies the authors published results on the role of personality as a mediation variable between gestures of different energy and spatial extension of a robot [11], the occurrence of a similarity attraction effect for the majority of the observers involved in the experience [12], and the understandability of the gestures displayed [13]. This study shows that changing the way a gesture is displayed is associated, to a statistically significant extend, with changes in the users' perception of those gestures.…”

Do I Have a Personality? Endowing Care Robots with Context-Dependent Personality Traits

“…Several studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of personality similarity on the engagement level of the user during interactions. Craen et al [15] investigated the role of the similarity attraction effect and its relationship with the perceived quality of HRIs based on a comparative analysis between the BFI and Godspeed questionnaires. In the presented experiment, participants were asked to rate 45 robotic gestures from video clips.…”

“…Nonetheless, the research in this area is still fragmented and not properly investigated despite its relevance [42]. Current research has focused on two main aspects of robot personality: (1) the study of the similarity and complementary attraction principle [15,16], and (2) the development of computational models of personality traits based on verbal and non-verbal cues [1]. As very relevant, these two aspects will be investigated in the presented work.…”

The MuMMER Project: Engaging Human-Robot Interaction in Real-World Public Spaces

“…These studies have found several clear relationships: for example, manipulating the amplitude and speed significantly affected users' perception of the Extraversion and Neuroticism of the robot, while the attributed personality also affected users' subjective reactions to the robot (Craenen et al 2018b). In addition, it was found that while the majority of users preferred a robot that they perceived to have a similar personality to their own, a significant minority preferred a robot whose personality was perceived to be different than their own (Craenen et al 2018a).…”