The Effect of Gender on Perceived Anthropomorphism and Intentional Acceptance of a Storytelling Robot

Gender and anthropomorphism play a substantial role in how social robots are perceived. In child-robot interaction, children's perception of the robot can be influenced by individual factors, such as the robot's gender. The purpose of this study is to examine how gender congruity affects the way children perceive social storytelling robots. Furthermore, the relationships among gender congruity, anthropomorphism, and intentional acceptance were investigated. Sixty-four children interacted with a storytelling robot. The results indicated that children did not humanize the robot to a higher degree if the robot's gender matched with the children's gender. Moreover, children who anthropomorphised the robot to a higher degree found the robot more sociable and had higher intentions of using the robot repeatedly. The findings of this studies contrast with previous scientific work, and indicate more research should be conducted to find out which factors play a vital role in the humanization and gendering of robots.