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The Effects of Robot Managers’ Reward-Punishment Behaviours on Human–Robot Trust and Job Performance

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Abstract

In a human–robot team, robots may play a manager, helping to maintain the behavioural norms of its team. Robots as managers have the power to reward and punish. Currently, a small number of previous relevant studies have mainly focused on the impact of robot punishment behaviour on human beings, but managers without reward behaviour have difficulty gaining the trust of members. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours on human–robot trust and job performance and explores the mediating effect of emotion and the moderating effect of group relations. The study recruited 76 participants using a 2 (independent variable robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours: reward behaviour, punishment behaviour) × 2 (moderator variable human–robot group relations: ingroup and outgroup) experimental design, and each participant and a robot manager worked together to complete the task of sorting items. It was found that the robot managers' reward-punishment behaviours have an impact on human emotions. Emotions play a mediating role in the effect of robot managers' reward-punishment behaviours on human trust but do not play a mediating role in the effect on job performance. The human–robot group relation plays a moderating role in the effects of emotions on human–robot trust. The research results help more preferably understand the interaction mechanism of the human–robot team and more preferably serve the management and cooperation of the human–robot team by appropriately adjusting the robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours in the human–robot team and the human–robot group relation.

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Availability of Data and Material

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing Social Science Fund and Major Research plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Additionally, we wish to thank the other members in the college of Economics and Management for their useful advice and good ideas.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 72201023.

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Author notes

  1. Jiajia Cao and Xueyan Hu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China

    Na Chen, Jiajia Cao & Xueyan Hu

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  1. Na Chen
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Correspondence to Na Chen.

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Chen, N., Cao, J. & Hu, X. The Effects of Robot Managers’ Reward-Punishment Behaviours on Human–Robot Trust and Job Performance. Int J of Soc Robotics 16, 529–545 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01091-0

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