The Use of a Sex Doll as Proxy Technology to Study Human-Robot Interaction.

We studied via a survey (n = 187) how people think about the interaction with sex robots by using a sex doll as a proxy technology. An interactive public installation was created centered around a female sex doll. People passing by could participate in the survey while interacting with the installation and the doll. The findings suggest that no gender differences were found, but that we did find a successful way to study a sensitive and uncommon topic. Finally, we also propose alternative ways to elicit responses about sex robots in future research.