Imagine how to behave: the influence of imagined contact on human-robot interaction

Imagined contact (IC), that is, mentally simulating an interaction with an outgroup member, reduces negative attitudes towards outgroup members, increases contact intentions, and reduces intergroup anxiety in human-human intergroup context. Our experiment tested the effectiveness of IC with a robot to improve human-robot interaction (HRI). Social psychological literature suggested that IC provides a behavioural script for an interaction. Hence, an imagined scenario similar to a real contact scenario should be more effective in eliciting the aforementioned positive effects. We therefore examined the effect of similarity between IC with a robot and the following actual HRI on interaction perception, and behaviours towards the robot. High similarity was expected to lead to a more positive perception of HRI and more positive interaction behaviour towards the robot (e.g. more social behaviour). Results showed that perceived HRI quality was evaluated more positively and participants displayed more social behaviour towards the robot when the imagined task resembled the HRI that followed, compared to when it did not resemble the subsequent HRI. When controlling for covariates, the effects on number of social behaviours and perceived interaction quality remained significant, however, there was no effect on the total amount of time spent producing social behaviours. This article is part of the theme issue 'From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction'.