A Waterloo Engineering research team has released new work that shows humans prefer interacting with social robots they perceive to have personalities that match their own.
This finding was made by Dr. Moojan Ghafurian, a systems design engineering professor, and Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.
The research included 95 participants between the ages of 20 and 67 who were asked to evaluate social robots based on the Affect Control Theory (ACT), which emphasizes qualities like goodness, activity, and power to determine the social identities that humans most like to interact with.
The results indicated participants were more interested in working with social robots in a health and well-being context when they perceived a closer match between their identity and the robot's. Although the participants were only shown images of robots, participants had consensus in rating the perceived identities of each robot.
"I'm interested in how social robots can support the health and well-being of older adults, which could significantly impact the aging population by filling in existing healthcare gaps for people that need extra care," Ghafurian said. "This research sets a foundation to understand how we can make those technologies more successful."
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