How Early Task Success Affects Attitudes Toward Social Robots

While social robots are designed to engage in socially interactive tasks, they may not always establish the intended social connection. We examined how people's experiences of succeeding in completing these interactive tasks influence attitudes toward social robots. People developed more positive attitudes toward social robots when they completed more tasks successfully. These findings highlight potential constraints of complex interactive tasks increasingly implemented in commercially available social robots. A trade-off may exist between early task success and the sustained training of complex social robots by their human social partners.