[PREPRINT] Mind the Machines: Applying Implicit Measures of Mind Perception to Social Robotics

Abstract

Beyond conscious beliefs and goals, automatic cognitive processes shape our social encounters, and interactions with complex machines like social robots are no exception. With this in mind, it is surprising that research in human-robot interaction (HRI) almost exclusively uses explicit measures, such as subjective ratings and questionnaires, to assess human attitudes towards robots - seemingly ignoring the importance of implicit measures. This is particularly true for research focusing on the question whether or not humans are willing to attribute complex mental states mind perception, such as agency (i.e., the capacity to plan and act) and experience (i.e., the capacity to sense and feel), to robotic agents. In the current study, we (i) created the mind perception implicit association test (MP-IAT) to examine subconscious attributions of mental capacities to agents of different degrees of human-likeness (here: human vs. humanoid robot), and (ii) compared the outcomes of the MP-IAT to explicit mind perception ratings of the same agents.Results indicate that (i) already at the subconscious level, robots are associated with lower levels of agency and experience compared to humans, and that (ii) implicit and explicit measures of mind perception are not significantly correlated. This suggests that mind perception (i) has an implicit component that can be measured using implicit tests like the IAT and (ii) might be difficult to modulate via design or experimental procedures due to its fast-acting, automatic nature.

A cross-cultural comparison on implicit and explicit attitudes towards artificial agents

“…At the same time, the mismatch between explicit and implicit measures found in the present study is in line with the recent work in the field of Human-Robot Interaction. Li and colleagues examined the mind perception of robots using a manipulated version of the IAT (MP-IAT) and explicit mind perception rating [82]. As there was no correlation between constructs, the authors suggested that implicit and explicit measures might be related but potentially independent concepts that require independent assessment.…”

Human-like interactions prompt people to take a robot’s perspective

“…Others have investigated people’s responses to robots by examining their explicit impressions of robot partners ( Kaplan, 2004 ; Becker-Asano et al, 2010 ; Flandorfer, 2012 ; Mandell et al, 2017 ; Dubois-Sage et al, 2023 ). Although some studies investigated whether humans would explicitly or implicitly ascribe a mind to a robot on a perceptual level ( Spatola and Wudarczyk, 2021 ; Li et al, 2022 ), limited studies have explored whether people would interact with a robot as if it has a mind. In this study, we adopted methods from social cognitive studies focused on human-human interaction, and tested whether people will spontaneously take the perspective of a robot in a way similar to how they do with another human.…”