The Role of Animism Tendencies and Empathy in Adult Evaluations of Robot

Okanda, Mako; Taniguchi, Kouichi; Itakura, Shoji

doi:10.1145/3349537.3351891

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Already Piaget in 1929 suggested that children younger than 6 years tend to attribute a consciousness to objects, i.e., the phenomenon of animism, and that this fades around 9 years of age. Recently, this phenomenon has been defined as a cognitive error in children ( Okanda et al, 2019 ), i.e., animism error , characterized by a lack of differentiation between living and non-living things. In this respect, several studies showed that, although children are generally able to discriminate between humans and robots, children aged 5–6 years tend to overuse animistic interpretations for inanimate things, and to attribute biological and psychological properties to robots ( Katayama et al, 2010 ; Di Dio et al, 2019 , 2020a , b ), in line with the results of this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots

et al. 2020

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Recent technological developments in robotics has driven the design and production of different humanoid robots. Several studies have highlighted that the presence of human-like physical features could lead both adults and children to anthropomorphize the robots. In the present study we aimed to compare the attribution of mental states to two humanoid robots, NAO and Robovie, which differed in the degree of anthropomorphism. Children aged 5, 7, and 9 years were required to attribute mental states to the NAO robot, which presents more human-like characteristics compared to the Robovie robot, whose physical features look more mechanical. The results on mental state attribution as a function of children’s age and robot type showed that 5-year-olds have a greater tendency to anthropomorphize robots than older children, regardless of the type of robot. Moreover, the findings revealed that, although children aged 7 and 9 years attributed a certain degree of human-like mental features to both robots, they attributed greater mental states to NAO than Robovie compared to younger children. These results generally show that children tend to anthropomorphize humanoid robots that also present some mechanical characteristics, such as Robovie. Nevertheless, age-related differences showed that they should be endowed with physical characteristics closely resembling human ones to increase older children’s perception of human likeness. These findings have important implications for the design of robots, which also needs to consider the user’s target age, as well as for the generalizability issue of research findings that are commonly associated with the use of specific types of robots.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This tendency to attribute human mental states to robots was also observed in children. Generally, children are inclined to anthropomorphize robots by attributing psychological and biological characteristics to them ( Katayama et al, 2010 ; Okanda et al, 2019 ). Still, they do differentiate between humans and robots’ abilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots

et al. 2020

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“…To resolve the problem of multiple meanings for the term "animism," Okanda et al (2019) proposed that there should be at least three different definitions of animism J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f (Figure 1). One is Piaget's categorical animism, or animism error, exhibited by young children who confuse living and nonliving things.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The second type of animism, anthropomorphizing animism, also referred to as general animism by a previous study (Okanda, et al, 2019), derives from cultural anthropology or theology (Ikeuchi, 2010). This represents people's tendency to believe that a soul or a spirit dwells in every natural and/or some man-made objects.…”

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Preschoolers' and adults' animism tendencies toward a humanoid robot

Okanda

Taniguchi

Wang

et al. 2021

Computers in Human Behavior

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This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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“…an ability to form a friendship with them) to the TR as to the TD. By invoking the appearance of animacy, the TR influenced the participants into believing that it was capable of mental processes and could attribute biological properties, mental states, social and moral standing to the TR [65,[67][68][69][70]. Higher BAM and TASc scores were predictive of higher participant ratings of enjoyment, perceived TD/TR's enjoyment, and friendship.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Evaluations of a Therapy Dog and Biomimetic Robot: Influences of Animistic Beliefs and Social Interaction

Barber

Somogyi

McBride

et al. 2020

Int J of Soc Robotics

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Social robots are being used increasingly across a range of settings, including in the context of therapeutic interactions with children. While research has shown that interaction with live therapy dogs can be calming and enjoyable for children, it is currently unclear whether social robots can produce similar outcomes. In this study, 11–12-year old children completed a questionnaire about their biophilic beliefs and attitudes to dogs and robots before engaging in two separate free-play, non-goal directed, non-therapeutic sessions with an interactive biomimetic MiRo-E robot and a living therapy dog in a controlled setting. Behavioural observations of social interaction, initiation and reaction behaviours by the child and dog/robot showed that participants spent a similar amount of time engaging in positive social touch with the robot and the dog, but overall more time interacting with the robot. This may be because the robot was more responsive to the children’s initiation behaviours. In self-report, participants significantly preferred the session with the living dog. However, overall enjoyment was high and more positive emotions were reported following interaction with the robot. The more participants attributed mental attributes and animacy to the dog/robot, the more they enjoyed the interactions, demonstrating that participants’ animistic beliefs were an important factor in their evaluations. Levels of social interaction did not correlate with enjoyment, suggesting that the nature of the interaction was less important than pre-existing participant attitudes in producing reported positive outcomes. Although there were some differences in behaviour and evaluations, these preliminary results suggest that MiRo-E provides a useful comparison to therapy dogs and may be a suitable alternative for use in interventions with children.

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The Role of Animism Tendencies and Empathy in Adult Evaluations of Robot

Cited by 21 publications

References 25 publications

A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots

A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots

Preschoolers' and adults' animism tendencies toward a humanoid robot

Children’s Evaluations of a Therapy Dog and Biomimetic Robot: Influences of Animistic Beliefs and Social Interaction

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