Shall I Trust You? From Child–Robot Interaction to Trusting Relationships

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Cinzia Di Dio¹  Federico Manzi¹  Giulia Peretti¹  Angelo Cangelosi²  Paul L. Harris³  Davide Massaro¹  Antonella Marchetti¹ 

[1] Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore;School of Computer Science, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom;Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, United States

关键词: developmental robotics;    HRI;    Theory of Mind;    attachment;    social interaction;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00469

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Studying trust in the context of human–robot interaction is of great importance given the increasing relevance and presence of robotic agents in the social sphere, including educational and clinical. We investigated the acquisition, loss, and restoration of trust when preschool and school-age children played with either a human or a humanoid robot in vivo . The relationship between trust and the representation of the quality of attachment relationships, Theory of Mind, and executive function skills was also investigated. Additionally, to outline children’s beliefs about the mental competencies of the robot, we further evaluated the attribution of mental states to the interactive agent. In general, no substantial differences were found in children’s trust in the play partner as a function of agency (human or robot). Nevertheless, 3-year-olds showed a trend toward trusting the human more than the robot, as opposed to 7-year-olds, who displayed the reverse pattern. These findings align with results showing that, for 3- and 7-year-olds, the cognitive ability to switch was significantly associated with trust restoration in the human and the robot, respectively. Additionally, supporting previous findings, we found a dichotomy between attributions of mental states to the human and robot and children’s behavior: while attributing to the robot significantly lower mental states than the human, in the Trusting Game, children behaved in a similar way when they related to the human and the robot. Altogether, the results of this study highlight that similar psychological mechanisms are at play when children are to establish a novel trustful relationship with a human and robot partner. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the interplay – during development – between children’s quality of attachment relationships and the development of a Theory of Mind, which act differently on trust dynamics as a function of the children’s age as well as the interactive partner’s nature (human vs. robot).

【 授权许可】

CC BY