To What Extent Does the Perceived Obesity Level of Humanoid Robots Affect People's Trust in Them?

TL;DR

A within-subjects study examines to what extent the perceived obesity level of humanoid robots affects people's trust in them and shows that humanoid robots with lower perceived obesity levels are significantly more likely to be trusted.

Abstract

Despite obesity being widely discussed in the social sciences, the effect of a robot's perceived obesity level on trust is not covered by the field of HRI. While in research regarding humans, Body Mass Index (BMI) is commonly used as an indicator of obesity, this scale is completely irrelevant in the context of robots, so it is challenging to operationalize the perceived obesity level of robots; indeed, while the effect of robot's size (or height) on people's trust in it was addressed in previous HRI papers, the perceived obesity level factor has not been addressed. This work examines to what extent the perceived obesity level of humanoid robots affects people's trust in them. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a within-subjects study where, using an online pre-validated questionnaire, the subjects were asked questions while being presented with two pictures of humanoids, one with a regular obesity level and the other with a high obesity level. The results show that humanoid robots with lower perceived obesity levels are significantly more likely to be trusted.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Example of different variations of a robot as used in this experiment, showing the difference in height-weight ratio between the normal-weight robot and the obese robot.