Blame my telepresence robot: Joint effect of proxemics and attribution on interpersonal attraction

Abstract

When remote users share autonomy with a telepresence robot, questions arise as to how the behaviour of the robot is interpreted by local users. We investigated how a robot's violations of social norms under shared autonomy influence the local user's evaluation of the robot's remote users. Specifically, we examined how attribution of such violations to either the robot or the remote user influences social perception of the remote user. Using personal space invasion as a salient social norm violation, we conducted a within-subject experiment (n=20) to investigate these questions. Participants saw several people introducing themselves through a telepresence robot, personal space invasion and attribution were manipulated. We found a significant (p=0.007) joint effect of the manipulations on interpersonal attraction. After these first 20 participants our robot broke down, and we had to continue with another robot (n=20). We found a difference between the two robots, causing us to discard this data from our main analysis. Subsequent video annotation and comparison of the two robots suggests that accuracy of the followed trajectory modifies attribution. Our results offer insights into the mechanisms of attribution in interactions with a telepresence robot as a mediator.