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Relationships Between Humans’ Gender Conception, Expected Gender Appearances, and the Roles of Robots: A Survey in Japan

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Abstract

Although existing studies have suggested that gender stereotypes affect human perceptions about robots, neither what type of robot tasks or roles are expected to show gender characteristics nor whether expected gender characteristics are directly related to conventional gender conceptions have been sufficiently investigated. To explore these issues, this study conducted two online surveys. In the first survey (N = 500) a total of 30 items related to interaction scenes asked whether male, female, or neutral gender was preferred in terms of the appearance of communication partners in these scenes, and five categories regarding the roles and tasks of robots were extracted based on expected gender appearances. The results revealed a weak effect showing higher gender conceptions inviting a female gender appearance preference in some categories. The second survey (N = 400) measured participants’ gender conception, negative attitudes toward robots, gender appearance preferences for the categories of robot roles and tasks extracted in the first survey, and occupations to investigate relationships between them. The results revealed that the influence of gender stereotypes and negative attitudes toward robots on gender appearance preferences changed depending on human occupation, in particular, those with the occupations of counselor, adviser, nurse, and caregiver were not associated with stereotypes, attitudes, or gender preferences toward robots playing roles in their own field of expertise.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Tatsuya Nomura, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 20H05573) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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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. School of Child Psychology, Tokyo Future University, 34-12 Senjyu-Akebono, Adachi-ku, Tokyo, 120-0023, Japan

    Tomohiro Suzuki

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  1. Tatsuya Nomura
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  2. Tomohiro Suzuki
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Correspondence to Tatsuya Nomura.

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Nomura, T., Suzuki, T. Relationships Between Humans’ Gender Conception, Expected Gender Appearances, and the Roles of Robots: A Survey in Japan. Int J of Soc Robotics 14, 1311–1321 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-022-00873-2

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