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Influences of Evaluation and Gaze from a Robot and Humans’ Fear of Negative Evaluation on Their Preferences of the Robot

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Abstract

To investigate influences of evaluation from robots, gazes from the robots, and humans’ fear of negative evaluation (FNE) into the humans’ preferences of the robots, we conducted an experiment in which a human-sized robot is used for an advisory role, providing suggestion in foreign-language education. There were three independent variables controlled: evaluation from robot (evaluative vs. non-evaluative robot), users’ FNE (low FNE vs. high FNE), and gaze from robot (refrained gazes vs. normal gazes), and dependent variables were participants’ preferences of the robot as subjective measures and amount of utterances as an objective measure. The experimental results suggested that when the robot evaluated participants with a lower FNE, they preferred to use the robot with normal gaze behavior more than those with a higher FNE. While the effect of refrained gaze is not clear for people with higher FNE, for people with lower FNE, refrained gaze reduced their intention to participate when the robot evaluated them. Moreover, the experimental results suggested that persons having higher FNE tend to trust the robot more, and participants spoke more when the robot did not evaluate them and when it used the normal gaze. This paper discusses the implications for applications with potential evaluation capability, e.g. for healthcare and education.

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Notes

  1. According to DSM III by American Psychiatric Association (1987), the lifetime prevalence of social anxiety disorder is 3–13%.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant–in–Aid for Scientific Research No. 21118006. The authors deeply thank Dr. Michihiro Shimada and Ms. Sayaka Taniguchi in the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories for their cooperation with the conduction of the experiment in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media Informatics, Ryukoku University, 1-5, Yokotani, Seta-Ohe-Cho, Otsu, Shiga, 520-2194, Japan

    Tatsuya Nomura

  2. ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, 2-2, Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0288, Japan

    Takayuki Kanda

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  1. Tatsuya Nomura
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  2. Takayuki Kanda
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Correspondence to Tatsuya Nomura.

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Nomura, T., Kanda, T. Influences of Evaluation and Gaze from a Robot and Humans’ Fear of Negative Evaluation on Their Preferences of the Robot. Int J of Soc Robotics 7, 155–164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0270-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0270-y

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