In “Can Robots Manifest Personality”, Lee et al. argue that personality plays a key role in the development of enhanced human-robot interaction (HRI) and that if it were to be adopted there needs to be research done on it.
To determine the effect of personality in HRI, Lee’s team used Sony’s AIBO robot-dog and a group of 48 university students, partitioned by personality, and studied the interactions between each student and either an introvert or extrovert version of AIBO. The results of this environment were that participants were able to recognize the personality of AIBO and that there was a strong crossover between the AIBO personality and the participants. Overall, it can be drawn from this study that there is reason to believe that personality can be manifested in a robot and perceived by humans. Additionally, it showed that a robot’s personality has a strong correlation with how a human perceives the intelligence and attractiveness of a robot.
This study was done in 2006 with what we would consider a fairly primitive robot by modern standards, so I would love to see this study redone with more modern robots. For example, we have voice assistants that use tone and inflection to sound like a real human, so this study could use a human voice rather than a pet’s to portray the robot, which might produce different results due to people being less approachable than cute little dog robots.
It’s really interesting to see that a robot’s personality can be designed to fit a human’s expectations. We always hear in movies and media that robots wouldn’t have feelings or emotions– but to have a personality, I believe they all come packaged together, even if it is just programmed to act a certain way. I agree with you when you say we are making such great advancements in robotic technology since 2006. There should definitely be a new study conducted on this, as I’m sure results would be different based on recent technological improvements. I think it would feel more real, if that makes sense. In 2006, robots seemed to just be in their beginning phases, using pet voices. However, if it were to have a human voice I, personally, would be very taken back. It would be impressive, but also very different and shocking to interact with it.
I am surprised that a study of such advanced technology was done in 2006 – I can only imagine how robotic technology has improved in the last 15 years. I find it interesting that humans see a difference in intelligence of the robot based on their personality – I guess that is not too surprising as perhaps an extroverted robot sounds more confident in their responses to humans than an introverted one. As you said, I’d be very curious to see this study re-done now given that so much time has passed.
Although I did not read this article, your summary gave me a good idea of the type of study they conducted. One thing that made me think is that the experimenters used a robot dog in the experiment, a familiar and well-liked species amongst humans. I am curious about what the results may have been had the experimenters used another type of machine, say another animal or something that was supposed to mimic a human.
Zach, your summary was very succinct and clear. Furthermore, your comments were interesting. I also think that robots and the presence of AI in our society has evolved so much. Consequently, I think our perceptions of robots have likely changed since the time this study was conducted. Personally, I know that my perception of robots has changed since I was a kid. When I was younger, I would think of robots as human-like machines and could not possibly imagine something like an Alexa, Roomba, etc. existing and being considered a robot. It will be interesting to see how robots evolve in the next decade as well.