A robot is watching me!: Five-year-old children care about their reputation after interaction with a social robot

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Robots are increasingly integrated into children's lives.
• Understanding children's perceptions of robots is crucial for safe and effective interaction.
• Previous research has not explored children's reputation management with social robots.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether 5-year-old children modify their behavior based on reputation when interacting with a social robot.
• To determine if children's attribution of psychological properties to robots differs based on robot interactivity.
• To provide the first evidence of reputation awareness in young children towards social robots.

Main Methods:

• A sticker-sharing task was administered to 5-year-olds (N=112) involving a social interactive robot, an attentional non-interactive robot, or a still robot.
• Children were asked to divide stickers between themselves and an absent recipient.
• A separate group of children (N=36) assessed the psychological properties attributed to social robots.

Main Results:

• Children strategically shared more stickers when observed by a social interactive robot compared to other conditions.
• The presence of an interactive robot influenced children's prosocial behavior.
• Children attributed significantly higher psychological properties to social robots.

Conclusions:

• Five-year-old children demonstrate awareness of their reputation when interacting with social robots.
• Social robots can influence children's prosocial behavior and perceived social norms.
• This research highlights the early development of social cognition in human-robot interactions.