Not All Robots are Evaluated Equally: The Impact of Morphological Features on Robots’ Assessment through Capability Attributions

Favorable assessments of social robots are addressed in several research and development attempts because positive attitudes and intentions towards technology are regarded as a necessary prerequisite for usage. To predict a favorable evaluation, it is inevitable to understand the appraisal process and determine crucial variables that affect the evaluative and behavioral consequences of HRI. Robotic morphology has been identified as one of these variables. In the present work, we expand previous work by demonstrating that capability attributions associated with robots’ morphological features explain variations in evaluations. Based on two large picture-based online studies (Study 1, n = 673; Study 2, n = 586) we show that robots with similar morphological features (e.g., robots with arms and grippers) can be clustered along their assigned capabilities, and that these capabilities (e.g., to manipulate objects) explain evaluations of the robots in terms of acceptance and social attributes (i.e., warmth, competence, and discomfort). We discuss whether these initial assessments are relevant to live interactions and how our results can inform robot design.