Two vs One: Robot-robot Interactions in Public Spaces

Social robots have gained immense attention over the years due to their potential use in various
domains. A large part of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) is utilized for behavioral change systems and to
influence decision making, which can be collectively called Persuasive Robotics. While there are numerous studies in the aforementioned area, there is an absence of work to understand the impact of number and physical size of robots on persuasive abilities and human compliance. There is also a gap in Persuasive Robotics to understand the effect of gender on perceived persuasion and competence of robots. This study was conducted as 2 (small vs big robot) x 2 (one vs two robot(s)) x 2 (male vs female) between-subjects experiment, spread across three stages where human participants engaged in a dialog-based interaction with a combination of the robots Pepper and NAO. The results are presented in terms of perceived persuasion and perceived competence across all stages, and it revealed that a single robot is better at persuading humans and there was no impact of robot size on persuasion and compliance. Additionally, males perceived the robots more persuasive and competent than females. Furthermore, a novel finding emerged from the study which suggests humans tend to assign gender-neutral robots with attributes of the opposite gender. The implications of the study showcase the purposeful use of robots in terms of marketing or brand promotion that may be used by organizations. The study findings further encourage better strategies of natural robot-robot & human-robot interactions allowing