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Children's animistic beliefs toward a humanoid robot and other objects
Kosuke Taniguchi1, Mako Okanda2
1Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Kyoto 615-0096, Japan.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|May 10, 2024
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Child development
- Human-robot interaction
- Cognitive psychology
Background:
- Children's understanding of artificial entities like robots is evolving.
- Investigating how children attribute properties to robots informs developmental psychology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine 3- and 5-year-old children's beliefs about a humanoid robot.
- To compare children's treatment of robots with their treatment of other objects.
- To assess children's attribution of moral, perceptual, and psychological properties to robots and objects.
Main Methods:
- Behavioral and verbal responses of 3- and 5-year-old children were analyzed.
- Children interacted with a humanoid robot and other objects (with/without faces).
- Attribution of properties (moral, perceptual, psychological) to targets was assessed.
Main Results:
- Three-year-olds showed incongruence between perceived properties and behavior, accepting hitting targets.
- Five-year-olds treated robots gently and attributed psychological characteristics.
- Significant differences in behavior and perception of robots were observed between 3- and 5-year-olds.
Conclusions:
- Five-year-olds may begin to differentiate robots from living beings.
- Developmental changes in children's animistic beliefs influence their perception of robots.
- Children's ability to distinguish robots from objects develops by age five.
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