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Children’s Indiscriminate Helping Behavior Toward the Robot Dog: Can Voice Influence It?

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Human-Computer Interaction (HCII 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14012))

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Abstract

In humans and robots’ vast and complex interaction mechanism, children’s study of prosocial behavior toward robots is a unique and humanized perspective. Many studies have confirmed that children can extend their helping behavior from humans to social robots. Meanwhile, the robots’ different characteristics and expressions are the essential factors affecting children showing their helping behavior to the robots. This study aims to investigate whether the robot dog’s “grievance” voice can affect the performance of children’s altruistic behavior when it can’t come out from a cage itself. Forty-four 4-year-old children were randomly assigned the two conditions, and the results showed that the presence or absence of aggressive voices does have an impact on the display of helping behaviors in young children. The findings can provide meaningful advice to parents and workers in the field of preschool.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the children, teachers, and parents who supported and participated in this experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Pang, Qianxi Jia & Jiaxin Lee

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  1. Yi Pang
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  2. Qianxi Jia
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  3. Jiaxin Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi Pang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan

    Masaaki Kurosu

  2. Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan

    Ayako Hashizume

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Pang, Y., Jia, Q., Lee, J. (2023). Children’s Indiscriminate Helping Behavior Toward the Robot Dog: Can Voice Influence It?. In: Kurosu, M., Hashizume, A. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14012. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35599-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35599-8_7

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