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The role of politeness in Human-Robot Collaboration on comfortability and perceived social attributes of a robot

Jonasson, Sofia LU (2025) KOGM21 20251
Cognitive Science
Abstract
This thesis investigates the role of politeness in human-robot interaction and its effect on comfortability, social perception and collaboration. The study utilizes the humanoid robot Epi, which provides step-by-step instructions for two Lego-building tasks. Politeness was manipulated in the tasks so that the participants one time interacted with Epi while Epi used polite communication towards them and in the other task Epi used polite communication towards them. After each interaction the participants rated their comfortability, using a revised comfortability assessment. They also rated their perception of Epis social attributes using the Robotic Social Attribute Scale (RoSAS) and how much of a collaboration they perceived the interaction... (More)
This thesis investigates the role of politeness in human-robot interaction and its effect on comfortability, social perception and collaboration. The study utilizes the humanoid robot Epi, which provides step-by-step instructions for two Lego-building tasks. Politeness was manipulated in the tasks so that the participants one time interacted with Epi while Epi used polite communication towards them and in the other task Epi used polite communication towards them. After each interaction the participants rated their comfortability, using a revised comfortability assessment. They also rated their perception of Epis social attributes using the Robotic Social Attribute Scale (RoSAS) and how much of a collaboration they perceived the interaction to be. The results showed that politeness significantly influenced the perception of warmth, with participants rating Epi as warmer in the interaction they had when Epi used polite communication. However, politeness did not have a significant effect on the comfortability of the participants, their perceived competence of Epi, perceived discomfort of Epi, or perceived collaboration in the interactions. Regression analysis revealed that comfortability was primarily predicted by perceived competence and discomfort. The participants felt more comfortable when the perceived Epi to be competent and they felt less comfortable when they perceived Epi to have discomfort. Warmth, despite being influenced by politeness was not a significant predictor of comfortability. At the same time these findings suggest that politeness can shape social perception of robots, competence and the absence of perceived discomfort are more essential for comfortability in a collaborative task in HRI. This study contributes to the understanding of HRI. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Jonasson, Sofia LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Artighetens roll i samarbetet mellan människa och robot när det gäller komfort och uppfattningen av en robots sociala egenskaper
course
KOGM21 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Human-Robot Interaction, Collaboration, Comfortability, Politeness
language
English
id
9213395
date added to LUP
2025-10-06 14:52:24
date last changed
2025-10-06 14:52:24
@misc{9213395,
  abstract     = {{This thesis investigates the role of politeness in human-robot interaction and its effect on comfortability, social perception and collaboration. The study utilizes the humanoid robot Epi, which provides step-by-step instructions for two Lego-building tasks. Politeness was manipulated in the tasks so that the participants one time interacted with Epi while Epi used polite communication towards them and in the other task Epi used polite communication towards them. After each interaction the participants rated their comfortability, using a revised comfortability assessment. They also rated their perception of Epis social attributes using the Robotic Social Attribute Scale (RoSAS) and how much of a collaboration they perceived the interaction to be. The results showed that politeness significantly influenced the perception of warmth, with participants rating Epi as warmer in the interaction they had when Epi used polite communication. However, politeness did not have a significant effect on the comfortability of the participants, their perceived competence of Epi, perceived discomfort of Epi, or perceived collaboration in the interactions. Regression analysis revealed that comfortability was primarily predicted by perceived competence and discomfort. The participants felt more comfortable when the perceived Epi to be competent and they felt less comfortable when they perceived Epi to have discomfort. Warmth, despite being influenced by politeness was not a significant predictor of comfortability. At the same time these findings suggest that politeness can shape social perception of robots, competence and the absence of perceived discomfort are more essential for comfortability in a collaborative task in HRI. This study contributes to the understanding of HRI.}},
  author       = {{Jonasson, Sofia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The role of politeness in Human-Robot Collaboration on comfortability and perceived social attributes of a robot}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}