The Difference in the Manner of Interacting with a Moving Robot Influences Animacy Perception

We experimentally examined whether differences in the manner of interacting with a moving robot (actually operating it vs. only observing its motions) influenced animacy perception and whether the strength of this influence could be changed in relation to the robot’s motions, which exhibited a degree of goal-directedness. We found that perceived animacy was higher for a robot that exhibited more goaldirectedness when participants only observed its motion. This was consistent with the results of previous works. On the other hand, perceived animacy was the highest for a robot that moved with 1/f noise (showing moderate goal-directedness) when participants actually operated the robot. This result suggests that the manner of interacting influences animacy perception.