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Feminizing Robots: User Responses to Gender Cues on Robot Body and Screen

Published: 07 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Robots are increasingly being deployed in a number of domains typically associated with female workers, e.g., caregiving. Although past robot morphology has favored a machine-like appearance that is often perceived as masculine, monitor-based robots provide designers with enhanced opportunities to include interface cues that convey femininity. However, it is unclear whether screen-based interface cues can elicit perceptions of femininity and what effects, if any, they would have on user evaluations of a robot. To address this, we conducted an experiment examining the effect of gender cue (male vs. female) and cue location (robot body vs. robot screen) upon user evaluations. Female interface cues, especially when conveyed via the screen, elicited greater perceptions of robot femininity than male interface cues. Implications for the design of social robotics are discussed.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI EA '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2016
    3954 pages
    ISBN:9781450340823
    DOI:10.1145/2851581
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Publication History

    Published: 07 May 2016

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    Author Tags

    1. anthropomorphism
    2. anxiety
    3. computers are social actors
    4. robot gender
    5. source orientation

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    CHI'16: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 7 - 12, 2016
    California, San Jose, USA

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2025)Gender Stereotypes toward Non-gendered Generative AI: The Role of Gendered Expertise and Gendered Linguistic CuesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/37011979:1(1-35)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2025
    • (2024)Authentic Impediments: The Influence of Identity Threat, Cultivated Perceptions, and Personality on RobophobiaHuman-Machine Communication10.30658/hmc.8.108(205-226)Online publication date: 2024
    • (2024)Mitigating Gender Stereotypes Toward AI Agents Through an eXplainable AI (XAI) ApproachProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869698:CSCW2(1-35)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
    • (2024)Now That's What I Call A Robot(ics Education Kit)!Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633401(1-14)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
    • (2023)The Effect of Gender on Perceived Anthropomorphism and Intentional Acceptance of a Storytelling RobotCompanion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3568294.3580134(495-499)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
    • (2023)Interacting with Masculinities: A Scoping ReviewExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3585770(1-12)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2023)Can a gender-ambiguous voice reduce gender stereotypes in human-robot interactions?2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)10.1109/RO-MAN57019.2023.10309500(106-112)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2023
    • (2023)Robot’s Gendering Trouble: A Scoping Review of Gendering Humanoid Robots and Its Effects on HRIInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01061-615:11(1725-1753)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2023
    • (2023)Do Robots Have Sex? A ProlegomenonInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01052-715:11(1707-1723)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
    • (2023)The Power of Personal Ontologies: Individual Traits Prevail Over Robot Traits in Shaping Robot Humanization PerceptionsInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01045-615:9-10(1665-1682)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2023
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