Asking for Help from a Gendered Robot

This project investigates the effects of gender in a human-robot collaboration interaction. In the experiment, participants completed four Sudoku-like puzzles with a robot from which they could verbally elicit help. The robot was given the gendered characteristics of a gendered computer generated voice and either the name Charlotte (female condition) or Charley (male condition). Contrary to expectations from psychology, male participants asked the robot for help more frequently regardless of its assigned gender. Participants of both genders reported feeling more comfortable with a robot assigned the other gender and preferred the male robot’s help. Findings indicate that gender effects can be generated in human-robot collaboration through relatively unobtrusive gendering methods and that they may not align with predictions from psychology.