Exploring Human-Robot Trust Through the Investment Game

Abstract

As robots become more advanced and capable, developing trust is an important factor of human-robot interaction and cooperation. However, as multiple environmental and social factors can influence trust, it is important to develop more elaborate scenarios and methods to measure human-robot trust. A widely used measurement of trust in social science is the investment game. In this study, we propose a scaled-up, immersive, science fiction Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) scenario for intrinsic motivation on human-robot collaboration, built upon the investment game and aimed at adapting the investment game for human-robot trust. For this purpose, we utilise two Neuro-Inspired Companion (NICO)-robots and a projected scenery. We investigate the applicability of our space mission experiment design to measure trust and the impact of nonverbal communication. We observe a correlation of 0.43 (p = 0.02) between self-assessed trust and trust measured from the game and a positive impact of non-verbal communication on trust (p = 0.0008) and robot perception for anthropomorphism (p = 0.007) and animacy (p = 0.00002). We conclude that our scenario is an appropriate method to measure trust in human-robot interaction and also to study how non-verbal communication influences a human's trust in robots.

Nonverbal Behavior of Service Robots in Social Interactions – A Survey on Recent Studies

“…The topic of trust is addressed in several papers. In [40] the correlation between self-assessed trust and trust measured during a game was highlighted, emphasizing the positive impact of nonverbal communication on trust levels. Trust is a critical component in humanrobot interactions, and nonverbal cues contribute to building and maintaining trust with robots.…”

“…Another scholarly work sought to establish correlations between human verbal behavior and robot behavior predicated on the personality traits of the interacting humans, distinguishing them as introverted or extraverted [39]. Trust and the impact of nonverbal communication were paramount in a different study [40], while another explored the influence of robot nonverbal cues on individuals' perceptions of the robot's social agency [27]. Cross-cultural interactions and the efficacy of robot greetings and gestures were examined in a particular context [41,42].…”

“…In [54] non-verbal emotional behaviors were measured through EEG signals. In addition, structured interviews were conducted by [46], and participant feedback was solicited by [40].…”

“…For instance, in [38], the collection of qualitative data involved reflecting on parents' and children's views. In [40] free-form observation notes were used to capture body language and speech, while in [32] the graffiti wall method was employed to understand feelings and perceptions.…”

An Immersive Investment Game to Study Human-Robot Trust

“…This article builds upon Arts et al (2020), presented at HAI 2020/ 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, 10-13th November 2020 -Sydney, Australia, and was invited by the Frontiers HRI Topic Editors for a 30% extension of the original contribution. The study would not have been possible without Ahmed Abdelghany, Connor Gäde, Vadym Gryshchuk, Matthew Ng, Shahd Safarani, Nilesh Vijayrania, Christoper Glenn Wulur, and Sophia Zell.…”