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Gendered Actions with a Genderless Robot : Gender Attribution to Humanoid Robots in Action

Askin, Gaye LU orcid ; Saltık, İmge ; Elver Boz, Tuğçe and Urgen, Burcu A. (2023) In International Journal of Social Robotics 15(11). p.1915-1931
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate how gender stereotypes affect people's gender attribution to social robots. To this end, we examined whether a robot can be assigned a gender depending on a performed action. The study consists of 3 stages. In the first stage, we determined masculine and feminine actions by a survey conducted with 54 participants. In the second stage, we selected a gender-neutral robot by having 76 participants rate several robot stimuli in the masculine-feminine spectrum. In the third stage, we created short animation videos in which the gender-neutral robot determined in stage two performed the masculine and feminine actions determined in stage one. We then asked 102 participants to evaluate the robot in the videos... (More)
The present study aims to investigate how gender stereotypes affect people's gender attribution to social robots. To this end, we examined whether a robot can be assigned a gender depending on a performed action. The study consists of 3 stages. In the first stage, we determined masculine and feminine actions by a survey conducted with 54 participants. In the second stage, we selected a gender-neutral robot by having 76 participants rate several robot stimuli in the masculine-feminine spectrum. In the third stage, we created short animation videos in which the gender-neutral robot determined in stage two performed the masculine and feminine actions determined in stage one. We then asked 102 participants to evaluate the robot in the videos in the masculine-feminine spectrum. We asked them to rate the videos according to their own view (self-view) and how they thought society would evaluate them (society-view). We also used the Socialization of Gender Norms Scale (SGNS) to identify individual differences in gender attribution to social robots. We found the main effect of action category (feminine vs. masculine) on both self-view reports and society-view reports suggesting that a neutral robot was reported to be feminine if it performed feminine actions and masculine if it performed masculine actions. However, society-view reports were more pronounced than the self-view reports: when the neutral robot performed masculine actions, it was found to be more masculine in the society-view reports than the self-view reports; and when it performs feminine actions, it was found to be more feminine in the society-view reports than the self-view reports. In addition, the SGNS predicted the society-view reports (for feminine actions) but not the self-view reports. In sum, our study suggests that people can attribute gender to social robots depending on the task they perform. (Less)
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author
; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Gender attribution, Social-robots, Gender stereotype, Actions, Human–robot interaction
in
International Journal of Social Robotics
volume
15
issue
11
pages
17 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • pmid:36694634
  • scopus:85146577432
ISSN
1875-4791
DOI
10.1007/s12369-022-00964-0
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
f34a0ce4-17de-444c-9731-a51b070386ed
date added to LUP
2024-09-17 15:00:05
date last changed
2024-09-26 16:18:00
@article{f34a0ce4-17de-444c-9731-a51b070386ed,
  abstract     = {{The present study aims to investigate how gender stereotypes affect people's gender attribution to social robots. To this end, we examined whether a robot can be assigned a gender depending on a performed action. The study consists of 3 stages. In the first stage, we determined masculine and feminine actions by a survey conducted with 54 participants. In the second stage, we selected a gender-neutral robot by having 76 participants rate several robot stimuli in the masculine-feminine spectrum. In the third stage, we created short animation videos in which the gender-neutral robot determined in stage two performed the masculine and feminine actions determined in stage one. We then asked 102 participants to evaluate the robot in the videos in the masculine-feminine spectrum. We asked them to rate the videos according to their own view (self-view) and how they thought society would evaluate them (society-view). We also used the Socialization of Gender Norms Scale (SGNS) to identify individual differences in gender attribution to social robots. We found the main effect of action category (feminine vs. masculine) on both self-view reports and society-view reports suggesting that a neutral robot was reported to be feminine if it performed feminine actions and masculine if it performed masculine actions. However, society-view reports were more pronounced than the self-view reports: when the neutral robot performed masculine actions, it was found to be more masculine in the society-view reports than the self-view reports; and when it performs feminine actions, it was found to be more feminine in the society-view reports than the self-view reports. In addition, the SGNS predicted the society-view reports (for feminine actions) but not the self-view reports. In sum, our study suggests that people can attribute gender to social robots depending on the task they perform.}},
  author       = {{Askin, Gaye and Saltık, İmge and Elver Boz, Tuğçe and Urgen, Burcu A.}},
  issn         = {{1875-4791}},
  keywords     = {{Gender attribution; Social-robots; Gender stereotype; Actions; Human–robot interaction}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{11}},
  pages        = {{1915--1931}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Social Robotics}},
  title        = {{Gendered Actions with a Genderless Robot : Gender Attribution to Humanoid Robots in Action}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12369-022-00964-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s12369-022-00964-0}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}