Abstract

Recent research reported that female robots are favored over male robots, mainly because female robots are judged as warmer and having emotions. This study examined whether positive attitudes toward female robots are changing depending a competence context such as identification of high level actions, agency of mind perception and forgiving mistakes. In Study 1, the participants (N=62) were randomly assigned to one of the two agent conditions (a male robot vs. a female robot) through gendering by the use of a male or a female name. The participants had to conduct an action identification task while rating how appropriate they found each action for the agent. In addition, they completed a mind perception scale. In Study 2, the participants (N=60) had to indicate the extent of how appropriate they rated each action in one of four agent conditions (male humans vs. female humans vs. male robots vs. female robots), mind perception and the extent of forgiving mistakes. According to the results, the extent of the appropriateness of high-level actions was rated much lower in the female robot condition than in the male robot condition. These findings implicate that negative attitudes toward women regarding competence can be transferred to female robots in the human-robot interaction.