Differences in effect of robot and screen agent recommendations on human decision-making

This paper compares the effect of a robot’s and on-screen agent’s recommendations on human decision making using a quantitative evaluation method. We are interested in whether a robot’s physical body produces some differences in the effect or not. Previous research investigated the advantage of a physical body; however, the advantage was not clarified quantitatively and there was not enough evidence to give the results credibility. Our method based on quantitative evaluation clarifies the effect of a robot’s and on-screen agent’s behavior on user decision making. Comparing a robot’s behavior with an on-screen agent’s, we show that the degree of the effect firmly depends on the interaction environment and that geometrical consistency between the interaction environment and embodied social agents (ESAs), which include robots and on-screen agents, is important in the recommendation situation.