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The Power of Opening Encounters in HRI: How Initial Robotic Behavior Shapes the Interaction that Follows

Published: 11 March 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Opening encounters are a fundamental component of every interaction. Psychology research highlights the valence of opening encounters as one of the main factors shaping the interaction that follows. We evaluated whether opening encounters would have a similarly powerful effect on human-robot interactions. Specifically, we tested how positive and negative opening encounters with a robot would impact the subsequent interaction. Participants interacted with a robot that performed gestures communicating different valences of opening encounters: Positive, Negative, or No opening encounter. To evaluate the impact on the subsequent interaction, we measured participants' willingness to comply with a help request presented by the robot and their perception of the robot. Our results indicated that most participants in the Positive opening encounter condition helped the robot and described a positive overall perception. An opposite pattern emerged in the other two conditions. Almost none of the participants helped the robot, and the perception of the robot was less positive. Our findings suggest that opening encounters with robots should be carefully considered due to their impact on the interaction that follows.

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  • (2024)Performing a Task Alongside a Robot: Exploring the Impact of Social ComparisonExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651055(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    HRI '24: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
    March 2024
    982 pages
    ISBN:9798400703225
    DOI:10.1145/3610977
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    Published: 11 March 2024

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    Author Tags

    1. greeting
    2. help request
    3. human-robot interaction
    4. interaction quality
    5. opening encounters
    6. robot

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    • (2024)Performing a Task Alongside a Robot: Exploring the Impact of Social ComparisonExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651055(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024

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